Interim Greek Government Wins Confidence Vote

Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos of Greece addressed parliament before a vote of confidence on Wednesday in Athens.

ATHENS — Greece’s new interim government comfortably won a vote of confidence on Wednesday, though the unity of the coalition, which must secure crucial rescue financing and save the country from default, appeared tenuous. 

The government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank, secured 255 votes in the 300-seat Parliament. In a poll conducted by roll call, 38 lawmaker voted against the government and seven were absent. Only three members in the three-party coalition — two from the Socialist party, Pasok, and one from a conservative party, New Democracy — voted against the government.

Speaking before the vote, Mr. Papademos appealed for the widest possible support for his administration’s bid to put the country’s fiscal house in order. “Each vote corresponds to a vote of responsibility to ensure that the effort to rescue the economy continues,” he said.

The prime minister said that for foreign creditors to continue working with Greece, the leaders of all three parties in the coalition would have to offer the written guarantees sought by foreign creditors — a clear nudge to the conservative and right-wing parties that have rejected the demand. “This commitment is being asked of Greece by our foreign partners who are committing to many years of financial support to Greece,” Mr. Papademos said.

The government’s victory, though anticipated, was an important step toward securing the rescue financing that Greece needs to pay its bills through December as well as a step toward clinching a European Union debt deal for Greece that was hammered out in Brussels last month. That deal calls for an additional $175 billion in loans and a 50 percent write-down on the face value of Greek debt held by private banks. But this support is far from guaranteed, and it is expected to be the main topic of discussion between Mr. Papademos and European Union officials in Brussels next Monday.

One possible stumbling block is the refusal by the leader of the conservative New Democracy party in the coalition, Antonis Samaras, to give European Union officials written guarantees that the new deal’s terms will be met. Mr. Samaras repeated Wednesday that his support for the new coalition government, which has pledged to carry out the deal, should be adequate. His remarks were echoed by the leader of a right-wing party, Giorgos Karatzaferis.

Mr. Samaras’s stance has been dismissed by many analysts as posturing. But he has yet to back down, and European Union officials appear unwilling to take no for an answer.

On Wednesday, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the Euro Group, an organization of European finance ministers, said he expected a sixth tranche of aid for Greece — a sum of about $10.7 billion on which the country’s solvency depends — to be released by the end of November.

But he added that European Union officials required a “letter from Papademos.” Mr. Juncker did not mention the coalition leaders, but his spokesman was later quoted by Greek state television as saying that the letter would need to bear the signatures of the leaders of the two main parties in the Greek coalition — Mr. Samaras and former Prime Minister George A. Papandreou of the previous Socialist administration.

TITLE OF CONTENTS

Widget by Hoctro | Jack Book