AFP, ATHENS: Greece’s parliament yesterday passed legislation on a second batch of reforms needed to help unlock a huge international bailout for the country’s stricken economy. The bill, which includes civil justice reforms, a bank deposit protection scheme and measures to shore up the liquidity of the banks, was backed by more than 200 MPs—a clear majority—as voting continued in the 300-seat parliament. The vote had been regarded as a key test of Prime  Minister Alexis Tsipras’ authority after he suffered a major rebellion by MPs in his leftist party Syriza in a separate vote last week on a first tranche of tough reforms demanded by Athens’ international creditors.
Tsipras had to rely on opposition MPs to pass the first bill, which approved sweeping changes to debt-crippled Greece’s taxes, pensions and labour rules—key conditions for opening talks on a bailout worth up to 86 billion euros ($93 billion) over three years. Analysts had regarded the second vote as an important test of whether Tsipras could avoid another deep split within his own party and head off the risk of early elections after only six months in power. But the Greek prime minister, who is riding high in the opinion polls, appeared to have suffered far fewer defections than in last week’s vote.  BBC adds; After another long debate, and plenty of angry exchanges, parliament approved the new reforms in the early hours of the morning.  More than 30 MPs from the governing coalition voted against the measures - but crucially for Alexis Tsipras the number of rebels was slightly lower than last week.
Mr Tsipras was defiant telling parliament that he didn't really approve of the deal that had been imposed upon him by the rest of the eurozone. But he stressed that it was the only way to keep Greece in the single currency.  Negotiations will now begin on approving the terms of a third bailout, with the aim of completing a deal by the middle of next month. It's a tight timetable with scepticism on both sides.  And Mr Tsipras still has to decide whether a successful conclusion of negotiations should be followed by early elections.
Last week, Greece passed an initial set of austerity measures imposed by its creditors. These were a mix of economic reforms and budget cuts demanded by the eurozone countries and institutions before bailout talks could continue. This second set of measures passed early on Thursday morning were of a more structural nature, including: a code of civil protection aimed at speeding up court cases, the adoption of an EU directive to bolster banks and protect savers' deposits of less than €100,000, and the introduction of rules that would see bank shareholders and creditors - not taxpayers - cover costs of a failed bank.