MPs recalled for vote but procedure not clear
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asked on Tuesday for Parliament to be recalled so MPs can approve the terms of Greece’s third bailout on Thursday but the process by which this will happen remained unclear on Tuesday night.
Tsipras wrote to House Speaker Zoe Constantopoulou to ask for lawmakers to be called back from their holidays but the SYRIZA MP appeared unwilling to cooperate promptly.
Instead, she indicated that a meeting with deputy speakers to decide the schedule for the plenary session would not take place until 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The government wants Parliament to approve the agreement by Thursday night so it can be discussed at a Eurogroup meeting on Friday and approved by other eurozone parliaments in time for the August 20 payment of 3.2 billion euros due to the European Central Bank.
Before the plenary can convene, the agreement has to be assessed at committee level. It was not clear on Tuesday night if the committees will be able to meet on Wednesday or whether they will convene on Thursday morning, followed by a plenary debate and vote later.
The leader of SYRIZA’s Left Platform, Panayiotis Lafazanis, repeated his intention to oppose the bailout and suggested that the government is breaking parliamentary rules by recalling MPs for the vote.
