Greek deal: Fears bailout will lead Greece into deep recession

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is fighting for his political life, having agreed to a bailout that analysts predict will drive the country into two years of recession.

To keep his country in the eurozone, he needs the parliament to vote for the deepest series of cuts and changes to Greece’s economy, including legislation that is still being written, and to do so by tomorrow night.

Then eight national parliaments need to agree that the creditors — the EU, ECB, and IMF — can begin to negotiate the detail of the programme in exchange for up to €86bn over three years.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny described the all-night, 17-hour meeting as a bruising experience and argued for Greece to stay in the eurozone, and against forcing them to take “time out”, as suggested by German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble.

Commission president Jean Claude Juncker said Grexit was definitely off the table now and he did not believe the terms of the bailout were humiliating for Greece.

With the list of prior actions the Greeks must take, it will not receive the money need to pay the ECB or the IMF in time. Eurozone finance ministers agreed to investigate finding bridging finance to tide them over.

Economist and specialist on Greece, Megan Greene, said the way the programme is structured dooms it to fail. For instance, fixing the tax system is good, but economic depression means people cannot pay tax.

She predicted that the banks will remain closed for a long time and with 40% non-performing loans, they will not be able to support the economy for a long time.

The European Parliament’s Green Party said the deal treated Greece like a protectorate and was highly critical of Germany forcing its dogmatic economic policies on countries. It accused Italy and France of being complicit by abandoning Greece, saying: “If this is the best that could be achieved, as prime minister Tsipras said, it demonstrates how far we are from building a Europe that can foster hope, engagement and self-respect. This was a black week for Europe.”