Daily View: What does Greece's austerity vote mean?
Commentators ask if anything has changed after the Greek parliament voted in favour of budget cuts, against allowing the country to become insolvent.
The why, despite protests, it sees the austerity measures as necessary:
"Without it, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund will not release another tranche of a large rescue loan to the country. And without the loan, Greece cannot afford to meet the interest payments on its monumental government debt. But because the package will bear down too heavily on ordinary Greeks without addressing necessary structural reform, it is likely to fail."
that he's not surprised Greek people are protesting as subsidies are for banks and the euro itself, "not for your average Greek citizen":
"The bailout consists of more debt being piled on to the existing mountain of sovereign debt to prevent, or delay, a disorderly banking crisis and to salvage the single currency - an unsustainable policy that compounds a monstrous financial crime in which the victims are future taxpayers; not only Germans but Greeks and almost everyone else...
Ìý
"Greeks await an admission from Brussels that its mismanagement and economic ignorance, and the structural flaws of the euro, have played their part in the meltdown. Greece's problems will need to be solved at the European level. But an EU leadership that, for decades, has urged a communautaire spirit among the people has yet to display this quality itself."
Conversely, the vice-chairman of Open Europe, that those owed the money will pay eventually:
"At some stage the creditors will pay: it is a matter of how and when. None of the proffered solutions to the Emu [Europe's economic and monetary union] crisis will work because they do not address the nub of the problem. It is not primarily a crisis of deficits and debts but rather centres on the problems created when countries lose competitiveness within a monetary union."
Greece should lower taxes but stay with the euro:
"As things stand, Greece is going to default. At some point, we are going to have a big, fat, Greek bankruptcy. The only question is whether the coming default is used to make things better for Greece, or is allowed to make things worse.
Ìý
"For Greece to truly recover, it must do now whatever it takes to get its economy growing now. However, whatever else it does, Greece must stick with the euro. Without a credible currency, an urbanized nation can quickly descend into chaos - and even starvation."
The isn't holding his breath that the vote for austerity will save the euro:
"European leaders, even David Cameron for all his public disassociation from the rescue efforts, are acutely aware that this is a real point of decision for Europe. If it can master this crisis, then Europe can show some worth. If it can't, it is difficult to see the whole project holding together."
