European Commission: Greece, Creditors Agree Last Details of Bailout Deal

The €85 billion package – which introduces sweeping austerity measures – was ultimately approved with support from opposition parties after an all-night parliamentary session.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde was due to call in by telephone to the Eurogroup for part of the meeting, euro zone officials said.

“The fight against the new bailout starts today, by mobilizing people in every corner of the country“, said a statement signed by Lafazanis and 11 other Syriza members and posted on the far-left faction’s Iskra website.

“Greece can not restore debt sustainability exclusively through actions on its own”, she added.

After months of wrangling and brinkmanship, the Eurozone finally approved the first tranche of an 86 billion euro ($96 billion) bailout for Greece in exchange for a promise from Athens to put its financial house in order.

“On this basis, Greece is and will irreversibly remain a member of the Euro area”, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker after the deal was sealed.

“While an early election could be helpful in terms of removing hardliners from a Tsipras-led Syriza and, possibly, forcing the party to adopt a more centrist stance, the most likely outcome will be another fragmented parliament in which no party controls an absolute majority”, said Wolfgango Piccoli of Teneo Intelligence.

His move “finalises his decision, taken a while ago, to choose a different path than the government and Syriza”, the government said. “That would not be a defeat for (Greek Finance Minister Euclid) Tsakalotos, or for Greece, but for Europe”.

David Madden, market analyst at spread betting firm IG, pointed out that in mid-morning trading, the FTSE 100 was trading higher after Athens passed its third bailout package.

Even so, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza party was deeply split in the vote, fell short of the 120 votes he would need to survive a censure motion, “leading to speculation he would call a confidence vote next week and snap elections as early as next month”, the Guardian reports.

The bill includes reforms increasing personal, company and shipping taxes, reducing some pensions, abolishing tax breaks for some groups considered vulnerable and implementing deep spending cuts, including to the armed forces.

According to analysis by the European commission, the European Central Bank and the eurozone bailout fund, Greece’s debts will peak at 201% of national output (GDP) in 2016, but still be 160% in 2022.

Eurozone finance ministers was to meet meet in Brussels to inspect the agreement and decide whether to grant Greece the money.

Approval from the eurozone was the next step for Greece as the country seeks a third global bailout to bring it back from the brink of defaulting on previous worldwide loans.

“There are 47 preconditions outlined by the “troika” to the approval of the first payment”, said Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb, referring to Greece’s three creditors.