| 1 | Greek MPs have finally voted through the country's third international bailout after a bitter all-night debate, hours before European finance ministers are due to meet to approve the deal with Germany digging in its heels. |
| 2 | As Eurogroup ministers gathered in Brussels on Friday to rubberstamp the 85 billion-euro ($A128.64 billion) rescue plan, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned that any German bid to palm off his debt-ridden country with a bridging loan rather than a new deal would be "a return to a crisis without end". |
| 3 | Tsipras appealed to other EU countries to reject the alternative solution that Germany was suggesting, which he claimed would only prolong the agony. |
| 4 | "It is what certain people have been looking for systematically, and we have a responsibility to avert that, not to facilitate it," the embattled premier told the parliament after a day and night of heated debate on drastic austerity measures that have deeply divided his radical Syriza party. |
| 5 | Athens needs to unlock bailout funds before a 3.4-billion-euro repayment to the European Central Bank falls due on August 20. |
| 6 | A majority of 222 MPs approved the 400-page draft deal with 64 voting against, including 40 from Tsipras' own leftist party ranks. |
| 7 | Outspoken former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and other senior Syriza cadres refused to support the three-year deal, which the premier has previously warned would force him to call early elections. |
| 8 | Tsipras said that failure to ratify the deal would enable Germany to push forward its proposal for a bridging loan. |
| 9 | But Berlin, Europe's paymaster, insists it needs further clarifications from Greece before giving the deal the nod. |
| 10 | Facing down critics in his own party, Tsipras told MPs: "I prefer compromise to the heroic dance of Zalongo" - a reference to a notorious 19th-century mass suicide in northern Greece when a group of women and children jumped to their deaths rather than submit to the cruel Ottoman governor Ali Pasha. |
| 11 | His government "had taken on the responsibility to continue the fight rather than commit suicide and then go running to other international forums saying it wasn't fair that we had to kill ourselves", he added. |
| 12 | Tsipras had argued there was no choice, but to agree to he swingeing cuts and sell-offs demanded by its international creditors "to assure the country's ability to survive and keep on fighting". |
| 13 | The vote was originally set for late Thursday, but was held up by procedural wrangling from hardline parliament chief Zoe Constantopoulou, who termed the bailout unconstitutional. |
| 14 | Now the drama moves to Brussels where eurozone finance ministers are expected to issue their verdict on the draft deal reached by Athens and officials from the creditors after weeks of negotiations. |
| 15 | German's deputy finance minister Jens Spahn sounded a note of caution about the prospects of a final deal there, saying Berlin and Paris still had questions on Greece's plans to privatise parts of its economy. |
| 16 | The Greek government had "come a long way", showing a "high degree of willingness to reform", Spahn conceded. |
| 17 | However, "we need more details in some areas. That is what we need to talk about - by the way we have a joint proposal from France and Germany," he added, without giving details. |