ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece’s coalition government early Saturday won a confidence vote it called for in a bid to bolster support among its backbenchers ahead of a presidential vote early next year.
Lawmakers voted 155-131 in favor of the confidence vote, following a three-day debate in the 300-seat parliament.
Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras sought the vote half-way through his four-year term, insisting on the need to allay fears of renewed political instability as the bailed-out country tries to exit a punishing six-year recession.
“Early elections would be a disaster and would cancel all the effort that’s been made” to revive Greece’s finances, Samaras said shortly before the voting started.
However, Samaras will still need opposition support to avoid a stalemate and snap election in February when parliament elects the country’s new president.
The anti-bailout Syriza party is leading opinion polls by promising to renegotiate the tough terms of Greece’s 240 billion euro ($302 billion) international bailouts.