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Greek MPs pass second set of reforms ahead of bailout deal

Greek MPs have passed a second set of reforms, paving the way for a crucial bailout deal.

The reforms - which include changes to the judiciary and banking systems - needed to be passed in order for negotiations to begin with creditors on a third bailout package worth €86 billion.

Without more financial support, Greece would face financial ruin and may be forced to exit the eurozone.

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Varoufakis: Greek bailout deal 'a new Versailles Treaty'

Yanis Varoufakis after speaking at today's bailout debate. Credit: Reuters

Greece's proposed bailout deal is like the Versailles treaty which led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has claimed.

Varoufakis, who resigned last week citing complaints from European creditors over his combative style of negotiation, quoted a famous British economist in a statement to MPs that was met by heckling from some areas of the room.

"'The powerful demanded that the losers accept terms they had no right to demand. The losers accepted commitments they had no right to accept'.

"These were the words of John Maynard Keynes on the Versailles Treaty. What we are confronted with is a new Versailles Treaty."

However, he did not say whether he would vote against the proposed agreement, or even if he would attend.

In the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to pay crippling reparations as the price of defeat in World War One - a factor historians attribute to the rise of Hitler's Nazi party.

Asked earlier this week whether she thought there were similarities between the Greek deal and Versailles, German Chancellor said she would not take part in historical comparisons "especially when I didn't make them myself".

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