BERLIN (MNI) – Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag,
will approve with a large majority later on Thursday the European aid to
the Spanish banking sector.
Test votes in the parliamentary groups today showed that the
overwhelming majority of the governing center-right CDU/CSU-FDP
coalition as well as the opposition center-left SPD and ecologist Greens
will support the aid measures. Only a few lawmakers from these parties
as well as all the lawmakers from the post-communist Left party will
vote against it.
The opposition-controlled upper house, the Bundesrat representing
the 16 states, will not get to vote on the bill.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble stressed in the meeting of the
CDU/CSU parliamentary group today that there is “no Trojan horse” hidden
in the Memorandum of Understanding on the aid for the Spanish banking
sector, said a source who attended the meeting.
Schaeuble assured that there would be no material changes to the
conditions when the fiscal aid is transferred from the preliminary
European bailout fund EFSF to the permanent ESM and that Spain would
remain fully liable for repaying the aid, according to the source.
Alexander Dobrindt, the secretary general of the CSU, stressed
earlier today that any change of modalities of the Spain aid must be
first approved by the Bundestag.
“I don’t see at the moment how we can vote for direct
recapitalisation of banks” without the Spanish government being liable
for it, Dobrindt stressed.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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