[JURIST] The Greek Parliament [official website] on Friday approved a three-year bailout package for about 85 billion Euros ($93 billion) just days before the country is due to repay debt to the European Central Bank. Without a bailout package, Greece could default on the payment. The bill, which was passed by 222 of 300 members, also places [NYT report] spending limits on Greece, tax increases, a higher retirement age, and encourages greater economic competition. The bailout approval has increased tensions [AP report] within Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras‘s [official website] leftist Syriza party because the party gained positions in the January elections with anti-austerity promises. The bailout still requires approval from Eurozone finance ministers, who will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday.

The debt crisis [BBC timeline] in Greece began in 2009 with a credit rating down-grade, and in the following years has led Greece to borrow hundreds of billions of euros. Last month Greece’s parliament voted to accept [JURIST report] the economic reforms rejected by the government just one week prior. Earlier this month the country voted [JURIST report] not to accept the bailout deal offered by Europe. Earlier that week, as the country was preparing for the vote, protesters in Greece gathered [JURIST report] in the tens of thousands, holding rival rallies that drew attention to the split within the country as the referendum approached. In April nineteen eurozone creditors held a meeting [JURIST report] in Latvia to demand completion of the economic reform program agreed to by Greece necessary to avoid a Grecian default or exit from the euro. Earlier that month the European Central Bank expressed concerns [JURIST report] about Greece’s draft law that prohibits the government from foreclosing on primary residences where borrowers can prove total wealth requirements as ripe for unscrupulous debtors to engage in strategic defaults without repercussions. In March Greece’s parliament passed an anti-poverty bill [JURIST report] that would provide free electricity and food-stamps to low-income households.