German lawmakers overwhelmingly backed Friday a new bailout plan for Greece after Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the cash-strapped country would face chaos without a deal. Following more than three hours of debate, German lawmakers voted 439-119 in favor of opening detailed discussions on the package. There were 40 abstentions.
CDU/ CSU YES 241 NEIN 60 (CSU 13) Abstains 5
SPD NEIN 4
DIE LINKE NEIN 53 Abstains 2
GREENS YES 23 NEIN 1 Abstains 33
Both DIE LINKE and the GREENS were in a dilemma: DIE LINKE had to vote opposite than their fellow party SYRIZA would have wished, as a matter of Leftist Principle, rejecting bailouts in general. The GREENS are basically for a third loan program, however, they reject the conditions.
time to learn German, folks!
German Bundestag has 631 seats.
Germany is one of the few eurozone countries whose parliaments had to approve the step.
Germany has been the largest single contributor to Greece’s bailouts and has taken a hard line, insisting on stringent spending cuts, tax hikes and wide-ranging economic reforms in return.
Last week, FinMin Schaeuble proposed to Greece “5-yeat temporary GREXIT and a ESM loan with toguh austeirty measures in order to finance a new currency.
Greece’s leftist government rejected the offer.
Merkel supports Schaeuble’s GREXIT
“The principle … of responsibility and solidarity that has guided us since the beginning of the European debt crisis marks the entire result from Monday,” Merkel told the special session of Parliament.
The alternative to an agreement, she added, “would not be a time-out from the euro that would be orderly … but predictable chaos.”
Merkel will have to return to Parliament to seek approval for the final deal when the negotiations are concluded.
“I know that many have doubts and concerns about whether this road will be successful, about whether Greece will have the strength to take it in the long term, and no one can brush aside these concerns,” she said. “But I am firmly convinced of one thing: we would be grossly negligent, even irresponsible, if we did not at least try this road.”
Merkel’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has talked particularly tough on Greece, said Germany will do its utmost to “making this last chance a success” — provided Greece does its part.
When “Grexit” is on the agenda democracy becomes ar fiction, bot only in Germany but everywhere. Oligarchy and plutokratie in democratic habits.