In a development spurring calls for a new “anti-bailout movement,” the Greek Parliament early Friday approved a controversial €85 billion financial rescue package—the country’s third such bailout from foreign creditors in five years, and one that will require the Greek people to endure further cuts and austerity.
“After more than seven hours of often passionate, bad-tempered debate, all through the night, the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, has got his way,” the BBC reported.
“I do not regret my decision to compromise,” Tsipras said as he defended the deal in parliament. “We undertook the responsibility to stay alive over choosing suicide.” He admitted to lawmakers the deal was no triumph, “but we are also not mourning over this difficult agreement. I have my conscience clear that it is the best we could achieve under the current balance of power in Europe, under conditions of economic and financial asphyxiation imposed upon us.”