German parliament backs Greece’s third bailout package

Interrupting their holidays for the second time this summer to cast ballots on a Greek rescue, lawmakers in the Bundestag lower house approved the rescue plan by 453 votes to 113.

Reports say 46 lawmakers did not attend the voting session.

“If Greece stands by its obligations and the program is completely and resolutely implemented, then the Greek economy can grow again”, Schaeuble said.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, one of the CDU party’s hawks on Greece, said that there is no guarantee that everything will work and we are allowed to have doubts.

The three-year bailout for Greece was approved by Eurozone finance ministers last Friday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has yet to make up his mind on calling early elections, a government minister said on Wednesday, following a rift in the ruling party over the country’s new bailout deal.

Schaeuble, Germany’s toughest negotiator on the Greek bailout, led calls for a “yes” vote in the parliamentary debate.

According to CNN Money, Greece committed to selling state assets as part of the latest 86 billion euro bailout approved by both German and Dutch leadership.

The IMF, one of Greece’s biggest global creditors for its previous loans, has not yet signed up to the deal.

The attack is in tune with a growing revolt in Merkel’s party bloc and a minority of Germans who polls suggest are opposed to helping Greece and keeping it in the euro area, where Germany is the biggest contributor to sovereign bailouts.

Germany, Greece’s most influential creditor and harshest critic, was cautiously optimistic that the 19-nation single currency group would approve the new loans at talks in Brussels.

Tsipras was meeting with members of his financial team on Tuesday, but the government has said any announcements on political developments will be made after today, when Greece must repay a debt for which it needs new loans.

Many German lawmakers – and Schäuble himself – were hesitant to pass another bailout for Greece without the explicit participation of the worldwide Monetary Fund. Of this initial €26bn, €13bn will be available for use by the Greek government straight away, followed by a further €3bn in November. Lawmakers in the Netherlands were also expected to greenlight the bailout on Wednesday.

“The pace of arrivals has been steadily increasing in recent weeks, with more refugees and migrants having arrived in Greece during July than during the whole of last year”, UN associate spokesperson Vannina Maestracci said at a daily news briefing. However, there are dozens of measures on tax, competition, social security and pensions that must be voted through and brought into force by the end of the year.The hardliners in Syriza have pledged to maintain their opposition to the measures and accuse Tsipras of betraying the anti-austerity values that brought him to power. The IMF’s board is to decide on whether to participate in the bailout only when it meets in October.