Should Mr Dimas's backers fail to win over enough deputies by the third and final vote on December 29th, Greece must hold a snap general election.
Others said the Parliament needed a populist distraction from an unpopular measure to replace social benefits -- including free transport and health care -- with cash payments, a proposal the Parliament also approved on Thursday in a third and final vote.
Parliament had narrowly approved the legislation to relocate the Bronze Soldier in a third and final vote earlier in the day, but in a statement Mr. Ilves called aspects of the legislation unconstitutional, though he did not elaborate.
Zakharov hopes that the academy membership would use the meeting to adopt its own version of the draft law and present it to the Duma before it casts the third and final vote for the law.
The hearing was temporarily delayed — and the room evacuated — by a bomb threat before Pai could cast the fifth and final vote.
It appeared as if the senators who would oppose the bill were waiting for another senator to cast the third and final vote that kills the bill. .
The bill will now be rushed through its committee stage and report stage, to be followed by a third reading and final vote in a two-hour Commons debate tonight from 8.30pm.
