BERLIN (MNI) – Germany’s main opposition party, the center-left
SPD, is willing to support the government in financial aid for Greece if
it informs parliament quickly and allows enough time to deliberate, one
of its key leaders said Friday.

SPD parliamentary leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a speech
in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, that the government
must not wait until after a crucial regional vote on May 9 before it
brings the Greek aid bill to parliament.

“Our expectation is that you inform parliament in time, this week,”
Steinmeier said. “If you tell parliament openly what you expect our
approval on, then you can expect that the SPD won’t refuse its support.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU-FDP coalition government
is dependent on the opposition parties if it wants to get an eventual
aid bill quickly through parliament.

Steinmeier said he expected that in the end Greece will activate
the aid offered by its Eurozone peers.

Eurozone members have said they will provide up to E30 billion in
bilateral loans for Greece this year in a joint program with the IMF.
Germany’s share would amount to up to E8.4 billion.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday that
most experts estimated the likely IMF contribution at between E10
billion and E15 billion.

German Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said in a speech in the
Bundestag on Friday that the case for Greece actually needing financial
help has not yet come about “and we should work jointly so that it will
stay this way.”

Frank Schaeffler, a member of the FDP parliamentary group, said in
a newspaper interview published Friday that Germany might have to pay
more in aid than the currently offered E8.4 billion.

“It is likely that Germany will have to provide more than E30
billion in loans through the end of 2012,” the lawmaker told German
daily Bild. “Thereafter it could become even more. Greece is a
bottomless pit,” he said.

Bild cited government sources as saying that Germany might have to
grant loans of up to E16.8 billion to Greece.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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