BERLIN (MNI) – The German government will win a large majority in
parliament for its bill on the reform of the European Financial
Stability Fund (EFSF), a senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
government coalition said Thursday.

“There will be a very, very broad majority in the Bundestag and the
Bundesrat,” the lower and upper house of parliament, Michael Meister
told journalists here. Meister is deputy parliamentary leader of
Merkel’s center-right CDU/CSU bloc and responsible for budget and
financial matters.

The lawmaker pointed out that except for the post-communist Left
party, all opposition parties have announced that they will vote with
the government camp for the EFSF bill.

And despite some unrest in Merkel’s coalition fraction about the
EFSF bill, “the coalition will also have a majority on its own,” Meister
predicted. “I have no doubt about this.”

The senior lawmaker lashed out at Economics Minister Philipp
Roesler, who heads the junior coalition partner FDP, for publicly
speculating about an orderly default of Greece. “This debate has led to
a massive damaging of the financial system,” he warned.

There are no instruments today for an orderly default of a state,
Meister noted, which means that any default of Greece would be
disorderly. “Through this debate we’re possibly contributing to a
self-fulfilling prophecy,” he warned.

He also criticized calls for an exit of Greece from the European
Monetary Union. The consequences of such an exit “would be absolutely
deadly” for Greece, he warned.

Despite the hefty conflict in the government over Roesler’s
remarks, government spokesman Steffen Seibert stressed Wednesday that
Merkel did not see any reason to speculate about an end of the
coalition. There exist “common European policy goals to which all
[cabinet members] feel committed,” he reckoned.

FDP parliamentary leader Rainer Bruederle also said in a television
interview on Wednesday that the FDP sees “no reason at all” to leave the
government coalition. “We want to advance reasonable things,” he said.

Meister criticized today that Roesler’s comments on Greece were
motivated by short-term policy considerations. “Those, who base their
policies on short-term sentiment will get into massive problems over the
medium to long-term,” he cautioned.

Commenting on remarks by European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso that the Commission will soon present a paper outlining the
different options for jointly-issued debt instruments, Meister
underlined the government’s position that “eurobonds are no answer to
the current crisis.”

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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