However Schaeuble’s interview Sunday backing the package, as well as positive comments made at the eurozone ministers’ meeting in Brussels Friday, marked a show of support for the chancellor against any backbench rebellion during Wednesday’s vote.
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The approval is for 26 billion euros includes 10 billion euros to recapitalize Greek banks, which experienced a virtual run in the latest crisis, and 16 billion euros installments – 3.2 billion euros of which is meant to repay a bridge loan to the European Central Bank by August 20.
“I remain firmly of the view that Greece’s debt has become unsustainable and that Greece cannot restore debt sustainability exclusively through actions on its own”, she said in a statement. Some nations, such as Finland, already have given their approval.
Still Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem hailed the agreement at a news conference in Brussels shortly after eurozone finance ministers approved it. The deal is designed in a way that will stop the country from defaulting on its massive debts and crashing out of the euro.
But the IMF has taken an equally hard line, warning last month that, without an “explicit and concrete agreement” on debt relief, the fund will not participate in a new bailout.
“An election in the next few months would create more political uncertainty, delay economic recovery and impede reform implementation and the possibility of opening talks on debt relief as desired by the [IMF] as a condition of its involvement in funding the program”, said Joan Hoey, analyst for Europe at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
A third of MPs in Tsipras’s radical-left party Syriza rebelled against him and he only managed to win the vote with opposition help – prompting fresh expectations that he will be forced to call early elections.
“Adoption of the new memorandum and, most importantly, its implementation will determine whether Greece remains a member of the euro area”, Costas Iordanidis, co-founder of the local leading think tank ELIAMEP, wrote in an article in the Kathimerini newspaper.
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However, the prime minister defended his decision to back another rescue programme.
