F. Kouvelis: We will vote on the budget and support its implementation

Fotis Kouvelis described the political context in which Democratic Left votes in favor of the budget, noting that "the budget text includes constraints and possibilities. Our goal is to reduce restrictions."

Addressing the government and its partners he said "the tranche must be disbursed immediately after the passing of the budget. Greece cannot be played between the different views of Germany and the IMF for the sustainability of its debt."

He admitted that the budget for 2013 "expresses a particular choice of stabilization based on reducing consumption. The welfare state is limited. It has inherent problems that must be solved despite the suffocating fiscal adjustment. The stabilization can only be achieved with strong developmental activities with European coordination and integration."

He also said that "DIMAR is voting and will work for the optimal implementation of the improvements that I believe will follow," and that the confrontation surrounding the labour measures showed that troika and the partners can accept that a fiscal adjustment program can have be changes. Our insistence on labour measures was not due to an obsession but to show that we can change some things."

He noted that with the assistance of a "block of political forces, the government should press Europe for changes in the program. It is known that the adjustment program does not have the desired effects because it had problematic elements in its structure. Our partners must change the way they treat our country."