The German lawmakers approved on Friday overwhelmingly extension for four months of the program of financial aid to Greece, agreed Tuesday eurozone.
A total of 542 deputies voted in favor of extending until 30 June 2015, the program of support to Greece, did 32 against and 13 abstained.
There was no doubt about the approval of the Bundestag, despite the hard line taken by Berlin in negotiations with Athens.
The parties of the coalition -Conservatives Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrats have 80% of the 631 seats in the lower house, and -Verdes and left radical opposition also supported the text.
Before the vote, the finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, issued a plea for Europe and urged lawmakers to approve the text, but acknowledged it was “not an easy decision.”
“I ask Members not to vote against, since this would cause too much damage to our people and our future,” said Schäuble before the Bundestag, amid great applause.
The deputies decided to extend four months the aid program that drew international creditors in Athens in 2012.
Schäuble tried to reassure a public-about opposing the majority of 80% – to further aid to Athens, insisting that it is not granted “billions to Greece” or change the terms of the previous contract with the country.
“This is primarily to allow time for Greece to successfully close the program” aid for 2012, which provided a loan of 140,000 million euros a Mediterranean country, recalled.
The loan extension agreement was reached on Tuesday after an intense battle between Berlin and Athens, in which both hardened the tone, especially Schäuble and his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis.
The government of Alexis Tsipras, elected in late January with the promise to end the policy of austerity imposed by international creditors of the country and strongly advocated by Germany, had to commit to implement further reforms and austerity measures in exchange for the new financial aid.
On Friday, Schäuble again criticized the Greek government, ensuring that solidarity among European countries does not mean “that one can blackmail the other,” and called on Athens to continue “measures (rigor) required “.
Merkel, who only had a brief encounter with Tsipras in Brussels, had warned Wednesday that it was “still a lot of work” after the deal closed on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Varoufakis said Friday it had filed a deliberately vague program of reforms to get the approval of the parliaments of the eurozone.
Athens had to surrender, earlier this week, a list of reforms, in exchange for 7,200 million euros of aid program, which were still pending payment.
The document prepared by Athens contains no deadlines or commitments encrypted, but is a deliberate decision, explained Varoufakis on the TV channel Antenna TV, talking about “a productive vagueness”.
“We are proud of (their) level of uncertainty,” added the minister, who explained that several of its European counterparts asked not to give figures for not prevent the approval of their parliaments.
Since the beginning of the bailouts to Greece in 2010, the Germans always related aid with strict conditions, insisting that the country had caused their own evils, to promote corruption and cronyism.
Other countries of northern Europe, including the Netherlands, Finland and the Baltic countries also adopted a hard line with Athens.
Also Portugal and Spain, with conservative governments, joined the chorus of criticism against the Greek government and demanded that complies strictly its commitments, in part because they fear that a possible success of Tsipras give wings to the Left in both countries
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