German Parliament is set to vote for the second financial bailout for Greece amid signs of a new dispute within the Chancellor Ms Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition over whether the debt-laden nation should remain in the euro zone.
The Interior Minister, Mr Hans Peter Friedrich, caused a stir ahead of the vote by openly calling for a “voluntary exit” of Greece from the euro zone.
Mr Friedrich, a leading politician of Ms Merkel’s junior coalition partner Christian Social Union (CSU), suggested that the chances for Greece to recover from its financial and economic crisis and to become competitive are “certainly much better outside” than within the 17-nation group.
He is the first German Cabinet minister to openly propose Greece’s exit from the euro zone.
“I am not talking about forcing Greece to leave the euro zone, but creating incentives for an exit which it cannot refuse,” Mr Friedrich said in an interview published yesterday.
Some other Cabinet ministers, including the Economics Minister, Mr Philipp Roesler, also are in favour of Greece leaving the euro zone, media reports said.
The Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, and the Finance Minister, Mr Wolfgang Schaeuble, have until now insisted that Greece should remain a member of the euro group.
Mr Volker Kauder, parliamentary group leader of Mr Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) rejected Mr Friedrich’s proposal.
“We will make no contribution to the stability of the euro zone by forcing a member to leave the group,” he said in a TV interview.
In spite of the division within the coalition, the Bundestag, the Lower House of Parliament, looks almost certain to endorse a motion from the German Finance Ministry on the second bailout for Greece with an overwhelming majority as the two main Opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green party have pledged to vote for it.
Greece urgently needs the second bailout of €130 billion ($170 billion) hammered out by the euro zone finance ministers a week ago, to avoid a default on repaying €14.5 billion debts due on March 20.
The heads of state and government of the European Union are expected to sign off the bailout package at their summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
In addition to the second bailout package, Greece’s private creditors have agreed to write down its debts by €107 billion.
Several parliamentarians of Ms Merkel’s ruling coalition have threatened to vote against the second bailout for Greece as they did during the Bundestag vote on expanding the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) at the end of September last year.