German Finance Minister Wolfgang Scheauble, for instance, has been a vocal critic of Greece’s reluctance to adhere to strict austerity measures.
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Germany’s Parliament on Friday cleared the way for a new bailout for Greece, but Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a large wave of defections among her own party’s ranks, amid skepticism about whether Greece ought to remain inside the zone that uses the euro as its shared currency.
439 MPs voted in favor, 119 – against, while 40 abstained. Before the vote, German leader Merkel warned not backing her plan will cause “predictable chaos”.
Addressing the chamber before the vote, Ms Merkel had argued that “we would be grossly negligent, indeed acting irresponsibly, if we did not at least try this path”.
“This gives us an idea of just how dramatic the situation is in Greece and how much was at stake for that country, and for Europe”. “Therefore this way was not viable”, she added. Politicians derive their responsibility from their functions.
Despite his misgivings, Schaeuble lined up with his boss.
Hannah Eberle, spokeswoman for the movement organizing the protests in Germany, told Newsweek in an interview that Merkel’s government’s behavior has been undemocratic and aggressive. “It’s a last attempt to fulfil this extraordinarily difficult task”.
“Seven reasons why the Bundestag should vote “No” today”, ran a headline in the mass-selling Bild daily before the debate, listing “Grexit is the better solution” and “our grandchildren will pay” among its reasons.
Among the changes announced, Tsipras replaced Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis and Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani, and ousted Alternate Social Security Minister Dimitris Stratoulis, all of whom had voted against him on the austerity bill.
Acceptance of the tough bailout terms marked a turnaround for Tsipras after months of acrimonious talks and a referendum that resoundingly rejected a less stringent deal proposed by the lenders.
About 50 members of the Chancellor’s coalition may soon vote against the measure.
As the BBC reports, on Thursday, the European Central Bank raised the level of emergency funding to Greek banks, setting the stage for them to reopen for the first time in almost three weeks.
1430 – European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said he hoped that a three-year bailout programme could be agreed with Greece within a few weeks and added that debt restructuring would be a feature of such talks.
Greece has already defaulted on a 1.55-billion ($1.7 billion) payment to the International Monetary Fund at the end of June and the European Central Bank payment due on 20 July is 4.2 billion.
“Our mandate is to act based on the assumption that Greece is and will be a member of the euro area,”.
Newly appointed Labour Minister George Katrougalos said that the governnment’s aim was to negotiate hard over the terms of the agreement and on how it would be implemented.
Schaeuble said he and Merkel had an understanding: “We know we can count on each other”.
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One protester, 21-year-old Simon Weppel, an archaeology student at the Free University in Berlin, said: “The way that Merkel’s government dealt with the crisis in Greece is a brief glimpse into the future of European Union politics”.
