Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has faced the widest rebellion yet from his leftist lawmakers as parliament approved a new bailout programme, forcing him to consider a confidence vote that could pave the way for early elections.
After lawmakers bickered through the night on procedural matters, Mr Tsipras comfortably won the vote on the country's third financial rescue by foreign creditors in five years thanks to support from pro-euro opposition parties.
The move paved the way for euro zone ministers to approve the deal as they met in Brussels.
But the vote laid bare the depth of anger within Mr Tsipras's leftist Syriza party at austerity measures in exchange for £60 billion in aid, as 43 lawmakers - or nearly a third of Syriza deputies - voted against or abstained.
The unexpectedly large contingent of dissenters, including former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, heaped new pressure on Mr Tsipras to swiftly clear the rebels from his party and call early elections to lock in popular support.
Mr Tsipras remains hugely popular in Greece for standing up to Germany's insistence on austerity before capitulating under the threat of a euro zone exit. He would be expected to win again if snap polls were held now, given an opposition in disarray.
"I do not regret my decision to compromise," Mr Tsipras said as he defended the bailout from euro zone and International Monetary Fund creditors in parliament. "We undertook the responsibility to stay alive over choosing suicide."
But the vote left the government with support from within its own coalition below the threshold of 120 votes in the 300-seat chamber, the minimum needed to command a majority and survive a confidence vote if others abstain.
In response, government officials said Mr Tsipras was expected to call a confidence vote in parliament after Greece makes a debt payment to the European Central Bank on August 20 - a move that could trigger the government's collapse and snap elections.
A senior lawmaker, Makis Voridis, from the opposition New Democracy party said his party would vote against Mr Tsipras's coalition, raising the odds it would be toppled.
Still, some of those who rebelled against Mr Tsipras could still opt to support the government in a confidence vote, as could other pro-European parties like the centrist Potami and the centre-left PASOK, leaving unclear the final outcome.
The vote was only the latest in a series of events highlighting the deepening rift within Syriza, which stormed to power this year on a pledge to end austerity once and for all, before Mr Tsipras accepted a bailout to avoid a banking collapse.
Since then far-left rebels have openly revolted at votes on bailout reforms and the combative parliamentary speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou has regularly delayed proceedings - most recently on Thursday, leaving infuriated lawmakers debating all night on procedures before a vote was held after daybreak.
The leader of Syriza's far-left rebel faction, former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, took a step toward breaking away from the party by calling for a new anti-bailout movement.
Syriza would be weakened by the departure of the faction led by Mr Lafazanis, but political analysts predict Mr Tsipras would still return to power if elections were held in the autumn, though he would have to strike another coalition deal.
"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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article