Greek banks to reopen after cash pledge from lenders

A final count showed 229 members of parliament out of 300 voted in favour of the measures, which included sweeping changes to Greece’s taxes, pensions and labour rules.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said: ‘I must tell you, that Monday morning at 9.30am, it was the most hard day of my life.

Tsipras has rejected the possibility that he resign, saying, “I will not run away from my responsibilities”. “But I know we did something to which there was no alternative”.

Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis hasn’t been included in the new cabinet and has been replaced by outgoing Labor Minister Panos Skourletis, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s office.

Finance Ministry Secretary-General Manos Manousakis also stepped down on July 15, announcing the decision by tweeting a copy of his resignation letter.

In the hours before the vote, violent clashes broke out at an Athens rally protesting the austerity measures demanded of Greece by its creditors.

The government, a coalition between Syriza and the small right-wing Independent Greeks, holds 162 seats in Greece’s 300-member parliament.

More than 30 other lawmakers from Syriza have publicly voiced objections.

Tsipras has acknowledged the measures he agreed to go against his election pledges to repeal austerity, and described them in a Tuesday night television interview as “irrational”.

Mr Voutsis said the government could have collapsed if the number of dissenters had risen to 42 – that would have made it more hard for Syriza to legislate.

Earlier on Wednesday as parliament’s debate was getting underway, protests broke out in Athens, and so it’s clear that for at least some – if not many, Greece did vote against a similar bailout package 10 days ago – this deal is not acceptable.

Some banks have re-opened in Greece – but only to allow pensioners to make a limited one-off weekly withdrawal.

In another development, the ECB said it has increased emergency funding to Greek banks by £628m for one week.

This week, Athens missed its second payment to the International Monetary Fund in two weeks, bringing the country’s arrears to the Washington-based lender to 2.0 billion euros, an unprecedented embarrassment for a developed nation.

Under the deal, Greek assets for privatisation will be parked in a special fund worth up to 50 billion euros, with some 25 billion euros of the money earmarked to recapitalise Greece’s banks. The ECB dishes out these loans, but they actually come from the central banks of each individual euro zone country.