–Adds Comments From Lawmakers To Story Sent At 12:11 GMT
BERLIN (MNI) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday she
was optimistic that the European fiscal aid planned for Spain’s banking
sector would find a supportive majority in the German parliament on
Thursday.
“The signals I’m hearing make me optimistic,” Merkel told
journalists here.
Norbert Barthle, the parliamentary budget speaker of Merkel’s
center-right CDU/CSU bloc said on Wednesday, “I’m hearing that with the
exception of the Left [party] all opposition parties will approve” the
aid for Spain.
The largest opposition party, the center-left SPD, signaled last
week that it would vote with the government coalition on the aid for
Spain.
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.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview broadcast
Wednesday on the government’s YouTube channel: “I’m very certain that
Spain will always be able to meet its commitments.”
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a regular press
conference here that Schaeuble had stressed in today’s cabinet meeting
that Spain would be fully liable for the European fiscal aid to its
financial sector.
Commenting on Greece, Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus
said at the same press conference that Athens must implement “difficult
reform steps” now. He again insisted that the reform program agreed
between Greece and its international lenders needs to be implemented in
full.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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