BERLIN (MNI) – Germany’s largest opposition party, the center-left
SPD, on Thursday signaled that it will vote today in the Bundestag with
the government for the European aid to the Spanish banking sector.
“Spain needs aid to rescue its banks,” SPD parliamentary whip
Thomas Oppermann told German ARD public television. “It is also in our
interest that these banks be stabilised.”
Oppermann stressed that Madrid will be fully liable for the
financial aid from its Eurozone peers. “There cannot be any direct aid
for banks,” he made clear.
The parliamentary budget speaker of the ecologist Greens, Priska
Hinz, said on Wednesday that her party in principle also supported the
aid for Spain’s banking sector but some questions still needed to be
answered by the government.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right CDU/CSU-FDP coalition
controls a majority of her own in the lower house and in principle does
not depend on the support of the opposition. But in previous votes some
members of her coalition had voted against fiscal aid measures for
ailing Eurozone states.
The opposition-controlled upper house, the Bundesrat representing
the 16 states, will not get to vote on the bill.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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