SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — The Greek parliament on early Monday approved austerity measures necessary for the country to receive more outside financial assistance and head off a messy default.

Greek lawmakers approved the measures in the early hours of the morning after a debate that took place against a backdrop of violent protests in Athens, reports said.

The spending and wage cuts were approved by a 199-74 vote, with 27 lawmakers abstaining from the vote, according to the reports.

Greek police dodge Molotovs and stones

The move to ratify the country’s austerity plans into law came after euro-zone finance ministers withheld approval for €130 billion ($171.2 billion) of aid at a meeting last Thursday, saying they needed concrete signs that Greece is seriously trying to implement cost-cutting moves.

Greece has a 14.5 billion euro ($19.1 billion) bond repayment due on March 20 and requires the bailout funding in place in order to be able to make that payment and avoid a hard default.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the Eurogroup, had warned Greece late Thursday: “In short, no disbursement without implementation.”

Greece faces elections possibly as soon as April, and the European finance ministers were anxious that cost-cutting moves had cross-party support so that they would continue to be implemented, even with a change of government.

Not all lawmakers supported the measures going into the vote, with Giorgios Karatzaferis, leader of the nationalist LAOS party, saying Friday that the party wouldn’t back the austerity plans, and reportedly calling the measures a further “humiliation” for the country. Read story on pre-vote uncertainty.

Last week also saw a spate of ministerial resignations in Greece over the measures, with Marilsa Xenogiannakopoulou, a member of the majority socialist PASOK party in Prime Minister Lucas Papademos’s government, resigning Friday as deputy foreign minister.

Four LAOS ministers and the Socialist deputy Labor minister also stepped down last week.

Meanwhile, Greek workers started their second general strike in a week on Friday to protest the additional austerity measures which are reported to include a 22% cut in the private-sector minimum wage and a further round of public-sector layoffs.

The bill passed Monday contained €3.3 billion in wage, pension and job cuts this year, according to a Reuters report.

“The approval did not come without major cost in the form of escalating protests and violence within Greece,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Credit Agricole.

“Attention [now] shifts to a meeting of European Union finance ministers on Wednesday,” he said.

At last week’s meeting, euro-zone finance ministers said that a draft agreement on private-sector involvement to reduce Greek debt to 120% of gross domestic product was “practically finalized” and expected to be approved as part of the wider second bailout package this week.