BERLIN (MNI) – Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag,
on Thursday approved with a large majority the European aid to the
Spanish banking sector.
The plan was supported by 473 lawmakers — the overwhelming
majority of the governing center-right CDU/CSU-FDP coalition as well as
the opposition center-left SPD and ecologist Greens. There were 97
votes against — a few from the main parties as well as all the members
from the post-communist Left party. There were 13 abstentions.
The opposition-controlled upper house, the Bundesrat representing
the 16 states, will not get to vote on the bill.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in a speech in the
Bundestag ahead of the vote stressed that the Spanish government would
be liable for paying back the rescue funds, even once the aid package is
transferred from the temporary European bailout fund EFSF to the
permanent ESM.
Talk of a banking union, which could lead to direct bank
recapitalizations by the ESM, was a “debate looking to the future” that
should be kept separate from consideration of aid for Spain, Schaeuble
said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,MGX$$$,M$$CR$,M$G$$$,M$S$$$,MT$$$$]
