[JURIST] Greek lawmakers approved a bill early Saturday morning containing new austerity measures and economic overhauls under its new bailout program. All but one of the 155 members of the leftist Syriza [party website], which now runs the government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras [official website], and the Independent Anel Greeks voted in favor of the bill, with 140 other lawmakers voting against it. The bill, which was passed after a week-long debate [WSJ report], introduced a new round of tax hikes for all taxpayers, as well as stricter penalties for those who evade paying them. The bill also contained provisions for a new pension system that will phase out early retirement and make other pension cuts. It was required that the Greeks pass the bill in order to qualify for their next €2 billion (USD $2.3 billion) loan installment. The loan installment is part of the country’s third major bailout agreement with eurozone lenders, worth a total of €86 billion euros (USD $98 billion).

The debt crisis [BBC timeline] in Greece began in 2009 with a down-grade of a credit rating, and in the following years, has led Greece to borrow hundreds of billions of euros. In August Greece agreed to the main terms of a draft bill [JURIST report] for a bailout that would provide about $95 billion to the country. In July Greece’s parliament voted to accept [JURIST report] the economic reforms rejected by the government just one week prior. Earlier in August the country voted [JURIST report] not to accept the bailout deal offered by Europe. Also 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 the completion of the economic reform program agreed to be Greece necessary to avoid a Grecian default or exit from the euro. Earlier that month the European Central Bank (ECB) 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.