Member of Angela Merkel’s ruling party CDU breaks discipline. Frank Heinrich argues the identity of Europe cannot only be based on the Euro currency.
General view of the German parliament, the Bundestag. / DW
Several Christian believers who are members of the German parliament (the Bundestag) took part in a session on the new Greek bailout deal. One of them was Frank Heinrich, who voted “no” even though he is a member of Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s CDU (Christian Democratic Union).
The main German conservative party had asked their representatives to vote “yes” to the new deal that the Euro Group had reached with Greece’s government last week. But Heinrich aligned himself with representatives of the opposition parties.
He did this out of his position of “passionate European”, arguing that the identity of Europe cannot be only based on the economy and the Euro currency. In a conversation with German news agency Idea, he said: “61% of the Greek voted against this deal in the referendum. [Prime minister] Alex Tsipras himself said he does not support it. So I do not believe the deal will be implanted”.
Heinrich, who is a member of the German Evangelical Alliance and served in the past in the Salvation Army, added that he believes a third bailout would not help solve the situation in Greece. A so-called ‘Grexit’ would not necessarily affect the Euro, he thought.
OTHER REACTIONS
Volkmar Klein, another Protestant believer in the German Parliament, voted “yes”, arguing that countries “should not allow the fissure to grow across Europe”. In the end, the motion was passed: 439 German MPs voted in favor of the deal and 119 against.
Other European countries will also vote the deal with Greece in their own parliaments, in the weeks to come.
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