Leftist-led coalition in Greece wins trust vote

Athens, February 11: Greece’s leftist-led coalition government won a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday, two weeks after it was elected to power. The coalition expectedly faced no trouble in the confidence vote with the leftist ruling party Syriza and its junior partner — the right-wing Independent Greeks — jointly commanding a 162-seat majority in the 300-member parliament, Xinhua reported. A total of 162 deputies voted in favour of the new government in the roll call vote and 137 against it, with one member of parliament (MP) absent, Speaker Zoi Konstantopoulou announced. The vote came ahead of an emergency eurozone meeting Wednesday on the Greek debt crisis and a European Union (EU) summit on Thursday. The new Greek government, which has pledged an immediate overturn of harsh austerity measures introduced since 2010 to avert default and restore growth, said it would seek to rewrite the terms of Greece’s bailout programme. Athens has requested an agreement to cover the country’s funding needs until autumn, while the government negotiated a fil agreement with creditors on further debt relief. Lenders, on the other hand, still seem adamant that Greece should stick to the current reform drive and not risk improving fiscal conditions in order to secure further support.  (IANS)