GREEK MPs overwhelmingly passed an anti-poverty law yesterday despite European Union warnings not to.

The law will see food vouchers issued to 300,000 people, pay 30,000 households a “rent allowance” of €220 (£160) per month and offer free electricity to some of the poorest families.

EU economy commissioner Pierre Moscovici complained that the measures were not compatible with a bailout extension signed on February 20, which stated that the Greek authorities must “work in a constructive way with the institutions” — the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

“That implies that there be consultations on new measures,” he said, echoing a letter sent by European Commission representative Declan Costello that urged Athens to negotiate over details of its Humanitarian Crisis Bill to ensure “consistency with reform efforts.”

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the Bill was supporting the weak and needy.

“Who has the nerve and the right to send a letter which will condemn thousands of Greeks to freezing from the cold?” he asked.

The Bill received cross-party support, with the conservative New Democracy and even the fascist Golden Dawn backing it.
But the Communist Party of Greece argued that the new law would leave most of Greece’s problems untouched.

“The government’s programme says nothing about the average wage that has been reduced by 25 per cent in recent years, the enormous tax increases, direct and indirect, which the workers are already paying for, about the serious wage and pension reductions, about the increase of living costs,” the party said.

by Our Foreign Desk