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Greek leaders survive no-confidence vote

The Columbian
Published: November 10, 2013, 4:00pm

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s conservative-led coalition government survived a vote of no confidence in Parliament on Sunday as angry anti-austerity protesters took to the streets.

The motion, introduced by the main leftist opposition party, Syriza, over the government’s economic polices and handling of former state broadcaster ERT, was shot down by 153 votes in the 300-seat parliament. Parliamentary officials said 124 voted in favor of the motion and 17 abstained.

The vote took place as several thousand anti-austerity protesters demonstrated outside Parliament.

Syriza called for the vote last week after police forced the remaining former workers of now-defunct broadcaster ERT from its headquarters in northern Athens, ending a five-month occupation.

The crisis began on June 11, when Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who leads the conservative New Democracy party, unilaterally decided to shut down ERT and fired all 2,700 staff as part of cost-cutting measures.

The move drew widespread international criticism, nearly brought down the government and prompted the Democratic Left party to leave the ruling three-party coalition.

The government has since opened a new state broadcaster, EDT. It now intends to hand over the broadcasting building to EDT, which is currently working out of a small studio in another part of Athens.

Greece has implemented a series of stringent measures, including tax increases and wage and pension cuts, since it received a first bailout in 2010 from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, collectively known as the troika.

Government officials hope to press during tough negotiations with visiting troika officials this week in a bid to secure further crucial rescue funding following the vote.

The government has been under increasing pressure to cut 15,000 public sector jobs by 2015. The job cuts at ERT allowed Athens to meet its short-term target of 2,000 layoffs by the end of June.

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