About 50 German MPs from Angela Merkel’s ruling alliance are expected to revolt against the government and vote no to a third Greek bailout in the Bundestag on Friday.
In what is expected to be a heated and emotional debate – the sixth time in five years that the German parliament has taken a decision directly relating to the Greek crisis – the rebels say they will vote “nein” out of anger at the chancellor’s decision to offer another bailout, having signalled at one point that she was willing to push for it to leave the eurozone.
The Greek parliament’s decision on Wednesday night to support negotiating a fresh bailout paved the way for the Bundestag to recall all German MPs from their summer recess for Friday’s ballot.
Last month, when parliament broke up for the summer and Greece seemed almost certain to dominate the agenda, the house’s president, Norbert Lammert, warned MPs “don’t swim out too far”. MPs were told to not travel to distant destinations from which it would be hard to return in time for a vote.
The debate takes place amid growing disaffection towards finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who in recent days has announced that his Grexit plan is still a possibility. A leading government official told the Bild newspaper that the document was “still in existence, but has been put in a drawer for now”.
Schäuble in particular, despite having the backing of most German voters, is likely to come under huge attack on Friday in what it is widely tipped will be one of the liveliest Bundestag debates ever witnessed, given the emotional and economic weight of the issue and the number of political legacies as well as the amount of national pride that is at stake. In a taster of what might come, Reinhard Bütikofer, a Green MEP, accused Schäuble of giving Germany a “heartless, imperious, and hideous face”.
While the total number of Merkel’s 311 Christian Democrats (CDU) who are due to oppose her is greater than in any other previous vote, it is expected she will have no problem pushing the initiative through the house. That is thanks in part to support from her junior coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) and from some opposition MPs. On top of the 50 expected to rebel from across the alliance, a further 20 were believed to be undecided or at the least remained highly critical of Merkel and Schäuble’s proposals.
Many from across the political spectrum have voiced their doubts that Greece will implement the reforms despite its promises.
At the end of February this year, the total of conservative MPs who voted against a second bailout was 29. Prominent rebels are Wolfgang Bosbach, Klaus-Peter Willsch and Erika Steinbach, all from the CDU. Joining them is Mark Hauptmann (also CDU), who is seeking supporters for his protest document, in which he details why he believes there should be no further bailouts.
Detlef Seif from the CDU who voted yes at the end of February, said he was voting no this time around, because he said the bailout deal – worth €85bn – was far too vague. “This time I will vote no,” he said, “because the facts and figures of this package are not clear and what is completely unclear is how high the real financial needs of the country are.”
Gregor Gysi, the head of the parliamentary faction of the opposition far-left Die Linke, said he would be voting no, not least because “a yes would be to support the German government in its anti-democratic, anti-socialist, and anti-European course of action”. Die Linke has been very proud of its connections to Syriza, seeing the rise of Alexis Tsipras and his party as a hope for their own ambitions. But even their enthusiasm for the party waned considerably after Tsipras failed to implement any tough actions to crack down on rich tax evaders in Greece, or to cut the military budget.
However, sympathy for Syriza has risen again since last weekend’s deal was hatched in Brussels. Dietmar Bartsch, the designated successor to Gysi, said he would find it impossible to support the bailout, because it “only emerged from a basis of blackmail”.
Die Linke’s foreign committee chairman, Stefan Liebich, told Berliner Zeitung while he would prefer to vote no, “we have to think about the consequences for Greece if we do”. “What would happen if the Greek government collapsed? We’re obliged to show solidarity in their time of difficulty,” he said.
From the SPD, Axel Schäfer said the Greek parliament’s decision to vote in favour of reforms sent a positive signal ahead of the Bundestag vote. “This is a very important step forward,” he told Reuters, calling for an end to talk of a Greek exit from the eurozone, which he said would be “lunacy”.
