In Merkel Win, Bundestag Lower House OKs Spanish Bank Rescue Package

By Joseph Lazzaro | July 19 2012 2:22 PM

(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel easily won a parliamentary vote on a euro zone rescue package for Spanish banks on Thursday despite growing unease in her centre-right coalition about the rising cost of Europe's debt crisis for German taxpayers.

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Merkel, who won broad opposition support, managed to secure a simple majority from her own coalition in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, whose members were recalled to rainy Berlin from their summer recess for this one-day session.

With each vote on the euro zone's debt crisis, concern about Germany's creeping liabilities has hardened, prompting a growing number of coalition lawmakers to rebel in recent decisions and cramping the government's room for maneuver in European policy.

The Bundestag backed the bailout by 473 votes, while 97 voted against, including 22 from Merkel's coalition -- fewer than the 26 coalition deputies who rebelled in a more far-reaching vote on the euro zone's permanent rescue scheme, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), last month.

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