BERLIN (MNI) – Germany’s largest opposition party, the center-left
SPD, signaled Thursday that it might vote for the government’s bill on
financial aid for Greece after the government moved closer to opposition
demands for a parliamentary resolution on making financial markets pay
for the crisis.
SPD party leader Sigmar Gabriel explained after a meeting with
Chancellor Angela Merkel that the CDU/CSU-FDP government coalition has
said “it is willing to accept proposals for a larger participation of
financial markets in the costs of the crisis.”
This would make it “markedly easier” for the SPD to approve the
bill tomorrow Gabriel said, adding that “we know that it is in the
German interest to keep the euro stable.”
An official from Merkel’s coalition camp said he assumed that the
SPD will now vote for the bill. The government and the opposition were
edging closer to a “rather vague” declaration on how financial markets
could contribute more to the cost of the crisis, he explained.
Both the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, and the
Bundesrat, the upper house representing the 16 states, will vote on the
Greek aid bill tomorrow. Merkel’s CDU/CSU-FDP coalition, in principle,
does not need the votes of the opposition because it wields majorities
in both houses.
Senior CDU/CSU parliamentarians on Thursday reaffirmed that they
were convinced the coalition would find a majority for its Greek aid
bill even without the help of the opposition.
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.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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