ATHENS — The leaders of Greece and Germany on Friday confronted dissenters over the wisdom of a $96 billion Greek bailout agreed to this week, as concerns mounted on both sides that the plans would cause fresh pain for Greece without delivering it from years of economic turmoil.
The turmoil was a measure of the skepticism from all sides about whether the bailout — Greece’s third in five years — will succeed. Many Greek leaders expect they will simply need to strike a better bargain at a later date. Some senior European leaders, meanwhile, question whether Greece will remain on the euro for long, even if it has won a reprieve inside the 19-nation currency zone for now.
Ahead of the German vote, Merkel told lawmakers that the measure was needed “for a strong Europe and a strong euro zone.” She said it would be “grossly negligent” not to pursue a deal after months of bitter talks that finally yielded a tentative agreement Monday.
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Ultimately, Germany’s Parliament passed the decision by a wide margin, 439 to 119, with 40 abstentions. But opposition included 65 members — more than 1 in 6 — from Merkel’s center-right party, who opposed their powerful leader on her 61st birthday. The defections were a measure of the deep German resistance to further aid for Greece.
German approval was one of the final steps needed before Greek and European negotiators could begin work on the technical details of the deal. Those talks are scheduled to begin Monday, and European officials said it could take about three weeks before a final pact was ready.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who has pushed hard in recent days for Greece to take a “temporary exit” from the euro zone, also voted in favor of the measure. But he expressed strong doubts about whether a new bailout could right Greece’s deeply troubled economy.
A solution needs to be found “not only with hot hearts but also with cool heads,” he said.
Rebels within Merkel’s party said their voters could no longer tolerate sending money to Greece in hopes that the country’s economy could start growing again.
Tsipras, the Greek leader, meanwhile announced that he was kicking dissenters out of his cabinet, including the rebellious energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, who voted early Thursday against the austerity measures demanded in exchange for the bailout. The reshuffle was widely expected, but it was a sign of the deep challenges facing Greece’s weakened leadership amid widespread expectations that early elections will be held in the fall.
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European officials also agreed Friday to provide Greece with the short-term loans needed to cover its most pressing debts, including a Monday payment to the ECB.
Only days ago, Greece was confronted with the threat of a euro-zone exit if it missed that crucial deadline. Instead, banks plan to reopen Monday, three weeks after closing their doors, after receiving fresh aid from the European Central Bank. But they are still weak, and many transaction limits will remain in place, among them a 60-euro-a-day limit on cash withdrawals, about $66.
Some questions about the bailout remain. The International Monetary Fund on Friday raised fresh concerns that without deep cuts to Greece’s debt burden, any new rescue would be unsustainable. European leaders want the IMF to help fund the bailout but have so far refused to consider the scale of debt relief that the IMF is demanding.
A plan without significant debt relief is “quite categorically not” viable, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told France’s Europe 1 radio Friday.
The discussions came as wildfires broke out in the Athens hills and elsewhere around Greece — a common event in the dry summers. Flames were visible from central Athens, and helicopters and planes dropped water on the threatened areas. At least one person was reported dead from smoke inhalation.
In a sign of Greece’s tapped-out resources, Tsipras said on state-owned television that he had requested international assistance to fight the blazes.
There was no immediate explanation for the fires, which came on a hot, gusty day and could easily have been a natural occurrence. But arson is not unheard of in Greece, and one prominent Tsipras ally suggested darkly that the blazes had been set by enemies of the government.
“This seems to be an undermining of our nation’s efforts,” Rena Dourou, the governor of the province that includes Athens, said on Skai television.
Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.
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