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German Parliament Approves Greek Bailout Deal An Architect of the Latest Greek Bailout Navigates Germany’s Dual Roles
(about 1 hour later)
BERLIN — Germany’s Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bailout of 86 billion euros, or $95 billion, for Greece, with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister failing to curb a revolt among their own conservative lawmakers who opposed more help for the heavily indebted government in Athens. BERLIN — When the German Parliament set aside its objections and voted on Wednesday to approve a bailout deal for Greece, the chief proponent was both an architect of the deal and one of those raising fundamental questions about it: Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.
After just over two hours of debate, the 584 lawmakers at a special session of Parliament voted 453 to 113 for the package, with 18 abstentions. (Parliament officials had initially reported 454 votes in favor, and a total of 585 lawmakers present.) Mr. Schäuble, who as much as anyone is the face of the austerity policies imposed by Germany on poorer European nations, had suggested just weeks ago that Greece might be better off going its own way rather than acceding to the bailout terms to remain in the euro.
Even taking into account that the session interrupted the summer recess, the number of lawmakers in the 631-seat legislature who stayed away, 47, was remarkably high, suggesting that at least some conservatives who opposed the package avoided the vote. Yet he had also helped, against long odds, to conclude that deal, which will unlock money necessary to allow Greece to stay current on its debts while imposing sweeping changes on its economy and finances. Already on Thursday, Athens should meet a 3.2 billion euro debt to the European Central Bank.
Last month, 60 of the 311 conservative lawmakers voted against even opening talks on what would be the third bailout for Greece since 2010, and five other conservatives abstained, a result that was seen as a political blow for the highly popular chancellor. Those tensions — between his role as enforcer of the German values of frugality and order on one hand and Germany’s role holding Europe together on the other — reflect the deep strains within Germany about how to maintain its own values while also taking on leadership of a fractious and sometimes hostile continent.
On Wednesday, 63 conservatives voted against the new bailout deal, and three others abstained. The result suggested that Ms. Merkel and her even more popular finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, would find it hard to get more help for Greece through Parliament. Like his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Schäuble has proved adept at navigating between those roles, simultaneously reassuring his fellow conservatives that he is guarding against giveaways to the Greeks while retaining credibility outside Germany as a proponent of European unity and integration.
In an unusual move, Ms. Merkel did not lay out the government’s case before the German vote, giving that task to Mr. Schäuble, who last month publicly questioned whether Greece should stay in the 19-member eurozone. Addressing Parliament on Wednesday as it considered the third bailout for Greece since 2010, he admitted to doubts, but said that this time the government in Athens was serious about enacting economic reforms and that it was thus worth offering further assistance and proving that Europe could stick together.
He has strong standing among conservatives, having served in Parliament since 1972, and held almost every senior post in the German government except that of chancellor. “Of course, after the experience of the past months and years, there is no guarantee that everything will work, and doubts are always allowed,” he said. “But in view of the fact that the Greek Parliament has already passed a large part of the measures, it would be irresponsible not to use the opportunity now for a new start in Greece.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Schäuble acknowledged his own doubts about a new program for Greece. But he said that the government in Athens had proved that it was serious about enacting overhauls, meaning that it was worth offering further assistance and proving that Europe could stick together. “For many, many reasons,” Mr. Schäuble said, “we need a strong Europe, capable of action.”
“Of course, after the experience of the past months and years, there is no guarantee that everything will work, and doubts are always allowed,” Mr. Schäuble told his fellow lawmakers. “But in view of the fact that the Greek Parliament has already passed a large part of the measures, it would be irresponsible not to use the opportunity now for a new start in Greece.” In those statements, Mr. Schäuble laid out the fundamental dichotomy for himself, for Ms. Merkel and for today’s Germany.
“For many, many reasons, we need a strong Europe capable of action,” Mr. Schäuble added. Political tension before the vote on Wednesday, in which conservative lawmakers staged a revolt against extending more credit for Greece, revealed the deep internal divisions being felt in Germany over its dual role.
“I have fought for these decisions” to help Greece, he said, “and I must ask you to approve the proposal of the government.” In the end, 63 conservatives voted against, three abstained and 17 simply did not show on Wednesday. In July, there were 60 against and five abstentions — one of the biggest blows to Ms. Merkel during her nearly 10 years in office.
Another leading conservative lawmaker, Volker Kauder, argued that European solidarity was needed on Greece, in part because Europe faces an even bigger challenge with the rising number of refugees coming from war-torn regions in the Middle East and Africa. But the measure ultimately passed by a substantial margin, 453 to 113. The total deal is for 86 billion euros, or $95 billion, with a first tranche of €26 billion specifically approved in Wednesday’s vote.
“Where we have found togetherness for Greece, that is the starting point to find togetherness on the refugees,” said Mr. Kauder, who had come under fire over the past 10 days after he appeared to threaten conservative lawmakers who opposed the Greek bailout with loss of parliamentary positions or influence. Leading the way was Mr. Schäuble, who at 72 is Parliament’s longest-serving deputy and has held virtually every top post in Germany, save that of chancellor.
The aid package was approved late Wednesday by the finance ministers of the eurozone countries, acting as governors of the European Stability Mechanism, the agency that will disburse the money. “A big chunk of the German public believes he has their concerns in mind, that when he conducts negotiations he works for Germany, so that it is not cheated on,” said Harald Schoen, professor of politics at Mannheim University.
The approval ensures that Greece will have the money in time to pay €3.2 billion it owes on bonds held by the European Central Bank on Thursday. Ms. Merkel, who is nothing if not pragmatic, likely had all this in mind when she ceded the Parliamentary leadership role to Mr. Schäuble on Wednesday.
The Dutch Parliament also approved the bailout on Wednesday, following similar votes of approval by the parliaments of Austria, Estonia and Spain on Tuesday. She may have wanted to avoid going down in history as the leader who expressly urged deputies to sign off on a package that could come back to haunt Germany and the rest of Europe. Or she may have been tacitly acknowledging that Mr. Schäuble was even more popular than she.
Separately on Wednesday, the German government said that more than 37,000 asylum applications were made in July alone, and the Interior Ministry was due to release the latest projections on the number of asylum seekers expected to arrive this year. In any case, the 25-year-old dance between Ms. Merkel and Mr. Schäuble remains a complex political relationship, and interpreting it is one of Berlin’s most popular parlor games. While some senior officials speak of a deep rift, another official familiar with both politicians insisted: “There is a deal. She gives him space, freedom to act. And he is loyal.” But few people truly know.
Politicians and journalists suggested on Tuesday that the figure would be around 700,000 to 800,000 — the largest number in Europe. Germany has the biggest economy and population of the 28 European Union nations. Both politicians were protégés of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. After Mr. Kohl lost power in 1998 and then, tarnished by a party finance scandal, stepped down as leader of his Christian Democrats, it was Ms. Merkel who bested Mr. Schäuble in the ensuing power struggle.
Ms. Merkel set the tone on Sunday night, when she noted that the refugee challenge would occupy Europe far more than even Greece and the status of the euro. She reiterated that new arrivals must be treated humanely, even if they do not eventually earn the right to stay in Germany. “His relationship with Ms. Merkel is not completely unburdened by the past, but overall, he enjoys a great deal of respect, and that is why working with Mr. Schäuble helps her,” said Uwe Jun, professor in politics at the University of Trier.
The government has expressed horror at more than 200 attacks on asylum shelters and migrants so far this year, compared with 198 in all of 2014. These attacks “are not worthy of our country,” Ms. Merkel said on Sunday. The finance minister, a lawyer, is a man of such strong will that he was back at work months after an assassination attempt in 1990, left him unable to walk and having to use a wheelchair.
Germans see in him a disciplined, smart negotiator; polling shows that even 40-50 percent of avowed supporters of the far-left Left party admire Mr. Schäuble, said Michael Kunert, of Infratest/dimap, one of Germany’s foremost pollsters. “This is really crazy,” he said.
“He is the uncomfortable figure who speaks the difficult truth, and thus makes the overall result better,” said Detlef Seif, one of the conservative lawmakers who nonetheless confounded both Ms. Merkel and her finance minister by voting against the Greek deal on Wednesday.
That image starkly contrasts with one held in southern Europe and beyond, where he has been widely lampooned as the ugly German — daubed with a swastika on the cover of Greek magazines, or grabbing the rear end of Athena in a cartoon in the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné in France.
Mr. Schäuble, who in public has shrugged off the cartoons, is in fact probably the most pro-European figure in Germany’s government. He belongs to an older generation that remembers how the United States and Europe helped Germany to recover after 1945, to accumulate wealth and — through the European Union — play a prominent role in the Continent’s affairs. He hails from the very southwest of Germany, bordering France, and is an avowed Francophile.
“The French ministers, the government,” said Barbara Kunz, a research fellow on French-German relations at the French Institute for International Relations, “know he is a Francophile and is fluent in French. He embodies the French-German couple almost naturally, or at least more naturally than Merkel, who has less ties with France.”
She added: “Schäuble embodies this old, western Germany, Bonn’s Germany.”
Ms. Merkel, 61, grew up in the Communist East and has acquired a taste for European affairs. In dealing with Russia, for instance, she brings knowledge of the language and culture to her dealings with President Vladimir V. Putin.
Despite their different backgrounds, Ms. Merkel and Mr. Schäuble work closely together.
In the all-night negotiations to save the euro in July, Ms. Merkel huddled repeatedly with President François Hollande; Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council; and Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister. Mr. Schäuble was not present, but, as both politicians confirmed this week, he was in constant touch.
Both Germans have also been in power throughout the long crisis over Greece, which first loomed in 2009, when Athens said that it had been admitted into the single currency on the basis of figures that were wildly inaccurate. No other member of the 19-nation currency union boasts such a veteran, experienced team.
In the buildup to Wednesday’s vote, the two made no public appearances together, whether out of lingering bitterness or pragmatic division of labor. But first Ms. Merkel and then Mr. Schäuble granted 20-minute interviews to German television, each following Ms. Merkel’s maxim from July — to “look ahead.”