After striking a deal at the European Summit in Brussels, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will have to take a number of initiatives in the next few days, in order to secure the 85-billion euro loan.
Tsipras has reportedly contacted the President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos to inform him about the recent developments. The President is expected to call a meeting of political leaders within the next few days.
The Greek parliament has until Wednesday to pass into law key creditor demands including streamlining value-added taxes, broadening the tax base to increase revenue and curbing pension costs. Government MPs do not want to implement most of these measures because they go against Syriza's election promises of ending budget consolidation policies.
Tsipras is facing a mutiny within his coalition after a number of government figures distanced themselves from the deal with creditors. 17 of the party’s MPs refused to authorize Tsipras to negotiate a deal with Greece’s lenders which included spending cuts, pensions savings and tax increases. Another 15 indicated over the weekend they would not vote for individual austerity measures.
Tsipras is expected to to change his administration and clear out hardliners and radicals from his party. The uncompromising speaker of parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou, has been ‘targeted’, as she is feared to jeopardize the procedures, regarding the critical bills that must be passed though Parliament. Constantopoulou can only be replaced through a no confidence vote.
30 Syriza lawmakers had a meeting earlier in parliament to decide which their next move will be. Most of these delegates support the Left Platform, an extreme left fraction within Syriza led by Panayiotis Lafazanis. The Left Platform is the official internal opposition that represents about a third of the party and controls enough MPs to bring down the government if it were to rebel in a parliamentary vote.
The government has 162 seats in the 300-seat parliament, and Tsipras can depend on support from the opposition benches to pass the austerity measures this week. Three opposition parties - New Democracy, Pasok and Potami - have indicated they will support the government.
Analysts at Eurasia Group do not exclude the possibility that Greece could soon head towards a national unity government, if many government MPs refuse to back the bailout deal on Wednesday night:
“If Tsipras loses his majority and potentially even more support than he did on Saturday, it makes no sense for him to try and reshuffle the government. In this case, he will instead likely choose to offer his and the support of the remaining Syriza MP’s towards a special purpose national unity government, but one which he will not head.”
While there is no real desire for other parties to participate in the a national unity government at present, they may press for the appointment of technocrats.