Milk Fight Rebels Relent, Bill Passage Seen

Backed by a warning from its international lenders that the next installment would be yanked if there are any changes to an omnibus bill going before the Greek Parliament on March 30, the government has brought would-be rebels upset over a provision concerning milk into line and expects the package will now easily pass after perfunctory debate.
After vowing they would vote against the bill because they disagreed with a provision extending the shelf life of fresh milk, eight lawmakers from the coalition government’s ruling parties have reportedly given in and will now support it.
Alternate Agricultural Development Minister Maximos Harakopoulos, who had threatened to resign unless the milk provision was changed, went through with his threat and stepped down from his post but said he would vote for the bill he opposed.
Even though one had declared he was willing to be tossed from the PASOK Socialists who are partners in the government led by Prime Minister and New Democracy Conservative leader Antonis Samaras, the dissidents were said to have relented after being talked to at length by their party leaders although no substantial changes were made to the the provision.
With only a slim majority in the 300-member Parliament – with the voting edge now reduced after the arrest of MPs from the extremist Golden Dawn party on charges of running a criminal gang – the government faced the prospect of not only losing on the bill needed to unlock as much as 11.9 billion euros in aid, but also of being brought down.
That likelihood was said to have evaporated after government officials twisted arms and got the dissidents to now say they will support the bill they said they would oppose, including
The former critics said the measure would be a blow to the Greek dairy industry by allowing foreign competition if the shelf life was extended from five to 11 days, although the farmers have been accused of colluding to set high prices.
Samaras was optimistic after talks with appeared upbeat after talks with  PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, his Deputy Premier/Foreign Minister. Greek MPs are told how to vote by their party leaders, making debate more of performance art, and are ejected from the party if they disobey marching orders.
Two government ministers had warned that unless the Parliament approved the deal Greece made with the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that Greece would be pushed out of the Eurozone and into chaos.
“All of the country’s successes have been recognized, there will be no more austerity and, most importantly, we have maintained all our red lines,” Samaras said in reference to the agreement with the Troika, which formed the basis for the reforms included in the multi-bill.
“This is the only thing that counts today and nobody can dispute it. Our MPs know this. They are responsible and have already shown it,” added Samaras. Venizelos insisted that the government had “everything under control” even though eight MPs had said they would oppose the legislation.
It was not reported how they were mollified nor why they gave up their strenuous objections to the measure that, like other contentious issues, was packed together into one giant bill so opponents of certain conditions couldn’t cherry pick their votes. Previously, MPs who had objected to austerity measures voiced objections publicly and then voted for them anyway.
The newspaper Kathimerini said that talks between Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis and dissenting New Democracy MPs had quelled the resistance. PASOK MPs Thanos Moraitis and Michalis Kassis – who had said he was eager to be ejected and would stand his ground – also reportedly caved in. It wasn’t reported why or if they were promised anything in return.
The major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) said the bill was the beginning of a new round of austerity and that it was based on the principles of “internal devaluation, medieval labor laws, the destruction of social security funds, the recapitalization of banks and favoring major multinational interests.”
That came before a warning from the Troika which said all the reform measures were untouchable and after two government ministers said unless Greece followed the lenders orders that the country would be forced out of the Eurozone.
The European Commission’s representative in the triumvirate, Matthias Mors, wrote to the coalition and said that if there was a single change to the bill that the agreement would be scrapped and the loan installment shelved, leaving Greece unable to pay a 10 billion euro bond installment in May, leading critics to say the government was giving in to blackmail.
Venizelos preached a similar message when he met with Socialist MPs. He described the multi-bill as “the last agreement before the exit from the crisis.”
He also accused SYRIZA of acting as “fifth-columnists” and “sucking up to the Troika” because the leftists doubted Greece’s primary surplus and wanted the country’s lenders to do the same.
Tsipras said that if his party came to power, it would withdraw all the provisions in the bill, which he described as “barbarous,” and put on trial for “criminal breach of faith” those involved in compiling the legislation.
He was particularly upset over bank recapitalization which has seen the government give the banks 41 billion euros so far with plans for another injection of at least 6.4 billion euros at the same time the government has set aside a bill providing debt relief for Greeks crushed by austerity measures imposed on orders of the Troika.
The government is going to allow the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) to participate in banks’ capital share increases even if the price is lower than what the recapitalization fund paid when it purchased a stake in the lenders last year. “The government has agreed with the Troika to give away the banks to foreign funds,” he said in Parliament.
A number of other groups were upset with the bill, including pharmacists who will see their monopoly end on the sale of non-prescription drugs that could now be sold in supermarkets, which would also be allowed to open in-store drugstores.
Druggists are on strike over it. The head of their association, Kyriakos Theodosiadis, said they would launch legal action in Greek and European courts against the bill, which removes almost all the restrictions on who can open a pharmacy and where. “They are favoring the supermarket cartel and putting a nail in the pharmacists’ coffin,” he said.
Only 50 of some 3,500 pharmacies in Attica opened on March 29, resulting in large queues at the stores that were open and waits of up to three hours to get prescriptions filled.