Greek parliament rejected unanimously on Friday a bid by all opposition parties represented in the assembly to launch discussion over the conduction of a referendum on the privatization of the state power corporation PPC-DEI.
With the backing of the ruling centre-Right New Democracy party and the co-ruling socialists, the chamber voted on Wednesday evening in favor of the privatization process as part of a wider privatization program of Greece's assets to permanently exit a severe debt crisis and boost growth.
Regardless of the vote in parliament, trade unions and opposition parties, who protest the sell of 30 percent of shares of PPC-DEI as harmful for workers and consumers, continued efforts to block the procedure.
Main opposition Radical Left SYRIZA party, the Greek Communist party, the moderate Democratic Left party, the nationalist Independent Greeks (ANEL) as well as the far-Right Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) party gathered over the past few days the more than 120 votes required to put the topic on the agenda for discussion.
However, since the parties presented different proposals and not a common text, the government said that the signatures of deputies could not count as a total therefore the required threshold was missed.
In protest of this development, opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary session.
The dispute over PPC-DEI's privatization cost one of the opposition parties one MP.
Grigoris Psarianos was expelled from Democratic Left's parliamentary group because he did not co-sign the party's proposal for the issue.
Earlier deputy Katerina Markou who also had not supported the proposal for the referendum on the privatization of PPC-DEI quit the parliamentary group, claiming that the party has changed course in recent months and that's why it suffered great losses in the May 25 elections for the European parliament and local administration.
In June 2013 Democrati Left quit the ruling coalition over the shutdown of the state broadcaster and its replacement by a leaner entity.
The austerity and reform program introduced to Greece four years ago to tackle the crisis and avoid financial meltdown has produced remarkable results in fiscal adjustment, but the implementation of structural reforms is still met by strong reactions by trade unions which are backed by opposition parties.
(Xinhua, July 11, 2014)
