BERLIN: German lawmakers are expected Friday to approve Greece's hard-won bailout extension in a parliament vote despite scepticism, removing the last hurdle for keeping crucial international aid flowing to Athens.
Berlin's unwaveringly hard line on the need for debt-wracked Greece to stick to economic reforms in return for aid is shared in other capitals from Helsinki to previous bailout recipients Madrid and Lisbon.
But tough talk from Europe's effective paymaster has sparked bitter exchanges with Athens since elections last month ushered in the hard-left government of Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras on a wave of anger at years of austerity cuts.
Even as Germany's deeply pro-European Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged his fellow conservative deputies to back the bailout reprieve Thursday, he voiced "disbelief" at renewed comments from his Athens counterpart on its teetering debt.
Pressure from Greece's debt of 320 billion euros ($365 billion) -- equivalent to 175 percent of its annual economic output -- is so severe that Tspiras wants to renegotiate repayment obligations during the four-month bailout extension clinched Tuesday after gruelling negotiations with creditors.
Germany is Greece's only eurozone partner to hold a parliamentary vote on granting Athens the breathing space, aimed at averting a potentially calamitous deadline on Saturday that could have sparked a Greek euro exit.
Despite misgivings among some, the move is expected to sail through the Bundestag lower house of parliament -- where the debate was underway Friday -- and Chancellor Angela Merkel's left-right coalition commands a crushing majority.
"Many MPs are agreeing (but) only with a big ache in their belly," Gunther Krichbaum, a conservative and chairman of the Europe committee in the Bundestag, said.
"They're not ready for more concessions."
In a dry-run ballot Thursday, 27 MPs among Merkel's conservatives -- who have 311 seats -- either voted "no" or abstained, while junior partners the Social Democrats unanimously supported the move.
The opposition Greens and the far-left Linke are also expected to support the move which Merkel has described as being about "the euro as a whole" as well as Greece.
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