The multi-bill was voted shortly after midnight yesterday, with 153 ‘yes’, 128 ‘no’, while 18 MPs kept a neutral stance, voting ‘present’. One MP abstained from the vote.

The vote, however, came at a cost for the coalition as it lost several MPs, Kathimerini writes. PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos ejected six lawmakers from his party for voting against the package. This included former minister Costas Skandalidis, who was rumored to be mounting a leadership challenge. The move reduces the number of PASOK lawmakers to 27. One MP was ejected from New Democracy, reducing the conservative party’s tally of deputies to 126.

Coalition party Democratic left MPs voted ‘present’ yesterday; the party said it would back the 2013 budget in a vote on Sunday. Parliament will vote again on the 2013 budget, which provides

Addressing Parliament a few hours before the vote, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras appealed to MPs to back the package, noting that Greece’s future in the Eurozone was at stake, Kathimerini writes. “Today we are voting on whether we stay in euro or we return to isolation,” he said. Samaras admitted that cuts to salaries and pensions were unfair but insisted that they would be the last and any “future adjustments” would be limited to curbing tax evasion and waste. He said the changes being pursued by his government constituted “a revolution.”

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos struck a similar note, saying that Greece had two options. “One is dramatically difficult, the other total disaster,” he said. The Socialist leader lashed out at the leader of main opposition, accusing him of “investing in the country’s political death” by calling for new elections.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras repeated demands for snap polls, noting that the coalition had reneged on its promises. Tsipras said the government’s efforts to secure an extension for fiscal adjustment were redundant. “The only extension we need is for the rope with which we will hang ourselves.”

Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis defended his party’s opposition to changes to labour laws. “Some insist that labour reforms are a secondary issue. That is not so. Labor laws are a road map for Greece after the crisis.” “We don’t want to be part of rebuilding the country after a collapse,” he said.

Between 70,000 and 100,000 people gathered outside Parliament from about 6 p.m. to protest ahead of the vote. The peaceful protest was broken up later when rioters clashed with police. Molotov cocktails were thrown and officers responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Consultations with the troika will continue during the week, while on Friday European Council president Herman Rompuy travels to Athens. The package of measures will be ready for presentation in the informal Cyprus Eurogroup by the end of next week. Samaras will meet with ECB president Mario Draghi and probably with IMF head Christine Lagarde within the month, protothema.gr writes.

The new austerity package will be finalised “no later than early next week”, government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said yesterday in a radio interview. He claimed that the government was trying to “find the fairest possible solution at a very difficult time for decisions that no one would like to take but which were necessary and the last” that the country will have to take. Kedikoglou also said that the austerity package would be accompanied by growth policies.

Meanwhile, the Premier will make a stop in Thessaloniki on Saturday, since for the first time it has been decided not to follow the established practice of a speech and a press conference. Officially, the communications staff speaks of a different ethos and behavior by Samaras’ government, one consistent with the times. In another approach, the prime minister wants to avoid a speech where the only thing he would have to announce would be painful cuts, and especially a press conference where he would be faced with his quite recent commitments, from renegotiation to changing the mix of economic policy and asking for an inquiry committee.

In the meantime, employees of the police and other security forces and judicial employees are planning action this week to protest against cuts in their payrolls. Tax office employees have also threatened to strike over the planned cuts, media report.

Addressing the cabinet, which convened to discuss the austerity package, Samaras said the government was determined to push growth measures, such as privatizations, structural reforms and boosting investments.

“If we only focus on the cuts, without any growth measures, we are at risk of the recession spreading to eight years, which would result in economic output having contracted by 30%,” the prime minister reportedly said.

Maanwhile, cabinet formally approved the package of EUR 11.7 billion in spending cuts, that includes drastic cuts to salaries and subsidies in public utilities, ending holiday payments for all pensioners and increases in public transport fares. The list will then receive a final sign-off today by the coalition leaders.

According to media reports, EUR 4.6 billion are earmarked from reduced pensions, EUR 1.39 billion from health, EUR 1.32 billion from state salaries and EUR 1.27 billion from administrative costs. Also, public-sector wage expenditure will be cut by EUR 3.3 billion by applying a 12% cut to the special salaries enjoyed by certain categories of civil servant, resulting in savings of EUR 360 million, while another EUR 339 million will come from cutting what remains from 13th and 14th salaries. In addition, the unified pay scale for all civil servants will be introduced a year earlier than planned, which will result in EUR 120 million euros in savings.

EUR 274 million in savings over the next two years will come from cuts in the salaries of 68,000 employees in public utilities companies by 30% savings, along with a reduction in state subsidies to these companies. Labour reserve scheme would save EUR 167 million and freeze on all promotions in the military and police will save EUR 165 million.

According to protothema.gr, the troika’s technical team has expressed serious concerns as regards the effectiveness of measures EUR 1.4 billion included in the austerity package. For instance, troika specialists have questioned the government’s ability to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure even further (EUR 450 million), given EOPYY’s debts towards the private sector have already skyrocketed. Also, EUR 500 million in defence cuts seem problematic to them, due to strict terms and conditions included in defence contracts. Further, they say that further cuts in operational expenses in the public sector is a measure they keep hearing too often by the Greek government but no results were ever produced (EUR 500 million). At the same time, private sector’s receivables from the state have reached EUR 7 billion. Finally, the troika’s technical team asked to exclude the forecast of EUR 2 billion revenues from battling tax evasion.