CHANCELLOR ANGELA Merkel will chair an emergency meeting of her Christian Democratic Union this evening amid signs of growing unrest in party ranks over further aid to Greece and the permanent euro zone rescue fund.
After returning from Washington overnight, the German leader goes straight to work this morning to defend euro zone rescue measures which many government MPs now grimly refer to as “the enabling act”.
Such a comparison between the EU and Third Reich should be a no-go in German politics, but its use now is an indication of the growing resentment in party rank- and-file towards Dr Merkel’s leadership. That mutinous mood is unlikely to brighten any further on publication of the troika report into Greek reform progress.
Many MPs feel they are being bounced into backing further Greek aid and a wider bailout regime. Although Berlin does not need Bundestag parliamentary approval to release Germany’s next tranche of Greek aid, this week’s vote is nevertheless a crucial barometer of Dr Merkel’s parliamentary support ahead of the vote on the euro zone rescue fund expected in the autumn.
Senior government officials, fearing the worst, concede the vote is “more than just symbolism”.
It is a sign of how seriously they view the situation that finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble will, ahead of the vote, speak to the Bundestag on Friday morning about the Greek report and the rescue fund.
“The government itself sees that the agonies are not over, that things are going to get even more difficult in Greece,” said a senior party figure who asked not to be named. “Merkel faces the question of whether she will get her own parliamentary majority behind her on this.”
Party rebels say they number two dozen, short of Dr Merkel’s 40-vote majority. They admit some of their number will return to the government whip rather than risk their own political fate.
As opinion polls now stand, the junior coalition Free Democrats – home to about 15 rebels – would have the most to lose from a snap election. Even if they fail, rebel MPs hope to use the vote to signal their unhappiness with the terms of the rescue fund deal.
They want to see tougher rules than those currently under discussion to force private creditors to accept losses on sovereign bonds.
There is concern, too, that the rescue fund’s assessments of a country’s ability to shoulder debt – and thus its need for external help – are to be made on a political rather than economic basis.
A growing number of German MPs suspect that further aid to Greece is merely postponing the inevitable – default and restructuring – and fear voter revenge if they back any such deal.
“Our fear is that the new rescue fund, by the time it’s implemented, will be overtaken by a new reality,” said Dr Thomas Silberhorn of the Christian Democrats’ sister party, Bavaria’s Christian Social Union.
“If Greek creditors have difficulties, be they German banks or insurance companies, it’s a bilateral matter to help them, not a task of the euro zone.”