The members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet gritted their teeth and passed a measure on Wednesday that would provide for a larger rescue fund in response to the euro zone debt crisis. Earlier arguments against the measure protested the level of participation by taxpayers in funding the bailout vehicle, but the level of the crisis was high enough to get the measure through the cabinet vote. It still must be ratified by a broader vote Sept. 29.
Bloomberg reported that the provision, which was approved by European leaders at a July 21 summit meeting, is a reconfigured European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) that includes sovereign bond-buying powers and raises Germany's share of EFSF loan guarantees to 211 billion euros ($305 billion) from its previous level of 123 billion euros.
While Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaueble commented in the report that with the measure's passage "the German government has strengthened its determination to secure the stability of the euro with a powerful set of tools at the Euro zone level," opposition still runs high. Some lawmakers have said they will vote against the measure in that late-September vote, and there is opposition within Merkel's own party, the Christian Democrats (CDU).
Wolfgang Bosbach, the CDU chairman of Parliament's interior affairs committee, was quoted saying in a television interview, "This is a fundamental question for our children and grandchildren, whom we're already saddling with mountains of debt—and then we're adding huge risks on top of that." He continued, "I'm not against helping Greece. I just doubt that ever-higher debts can actually help."
