–SPD Wants Govt To Agree To Resolution On A Financial Transaction Tax
BERLIN (MNI) – Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the parliamentary leader of
Germany’s largest opposition party, the center-left SPD, said Tuesday
his party will only vote for the government’s bill on financial aid for
Greece if the government accepts a resolution calling for the
introduction of a financial transaction tax.
“The government coalition will have to move if it wants to have a
broad majority in the German Bundestag” for its Greek aid bill,
Steinmeier said ahead of a meeting of the SPD parliamentary group.
He added that the smaller Greens opposition party shared the SPD’s
position on the need for a resolution on a financial transaction tax.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU-FDP coalition government,
in principle, does not need the votes of the opposition to bring its
Greek aid bill through parliament. However, the government has said it
would like to win a broad majority for the bill because that would send
a stronger signal to financial markets.
The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and the Bundesrat,
the upper house representing the 16 states, are to vote on the bill on
Friday. Merkel’s coalition wields majorities in both houses.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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