Parliament approves proposed state budget for 2009 in first reading

On the day of the vote, the governing coalition scored an important victory in the lower house, pushing through the basic parameters for the 2009 state budget into a second reading. A repeat vote took place on Wednesday after three rebels of the ruling Civic Democratic Party blocked the budget late Tuesday on the grounds that it was based on a projected 4.8 GDP growth when, in the light of the global crisis, the Central Bank had revised its forecast down to 3.6 percent. After some legal uncertainty regarding the fate of the budget, a second vote took place on Wednesday.