ATHENS — The debate lasted more than two hours, with one conservative lawmaker sharply accusing the Greek government of acting in bad faith. A liberal railed against Greek tycoons exploiting the tax system. And the powerful finance minister argued that lawmakers must put aside their differences and accept the controversial four-month extension of Greece’s bailout program.
Ultimately, lawmakers approved the Greek program on Friday — just not those in Greece. The vote was held in the Bundestag in Berlin, not inside the Greek Parliament building looming over Syntagma Square in Athens. Parliaments in Finland, Estonia and the Netherlands also granted approvals this week, as non-Greek politicians voted for Greece’s future even as Greek politicians did not.
The odd spectacle did have a rationale — the Greek deal required parliamentary approval in creditor countries — yet it also underscored how the economic crisis has accentuated the irregular shape of federalist democracy in the European Union, where the political structure remains under construction and the lack of democratic accountability of officials in Brussels is a sore point.
To some ordinary Greeks, the trade-off for collecting the $277 billion in bailout money has sometimes felt like a surrendering of democratic rights, whether to Brussels or to lawmakers in other countries, especially Germany. European officials from creditor institutions have alienated many Greek citizens during inspection trips in which they were sometimes accused of bluntly dictating policy and legislation in the name of fulfilling the conditions of the bailout.
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At a civil courthouse in the Athens suburbs this week, a group of local citizens were staging a demonstration to prevent foreclosure hearings against defaulted homeowners. Nearly 50 people had overtaken the courtroom — the judge had not appeared — and were giving speeches about how democracy had been drained from Greece by the crisis. “We have vowed to be here until democracy comes back to Greece,” declared Petros Georgantopoulos, one of the speakers, as others cheered. “But democracy is not here yet.”
Most of the protesters had supported Syriza in the elections and said they understood that change could not come overnight. But they warned that their patience was not endless. “Even with this government, until we see things change at the legislative level,” said Fotini Kokoni, one of the protesters, “we will keep fighting at the citizen level.”
Dimitris Bounias contributed reporting.
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