Slovakia approves eurozone bailout fund hike on second vote
Bratislava, Slovakia (AHN) – Slovakia approved after a second vote Thursday the proposed increase in the euro bailout fund. The country is the last among the 17-member eurozone to approve the hike in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to $600 billion (€440 billion).
Members of the country’s coalition agreed to support the measure after Prime Minister Iveta Radicova agreed to early elections on March 10, 2012. The bill lost earlier this week on a first vote after a coalition partner and the main opposition abstained.
With the political tradeoff, observers said the Smer-Social Democracy Party headed by former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico may emerge the winner in the next election. The party brokered the deal with other coalition partners.
Another coalition partner, Freedom and Solidarity, earlier refused to vote for the bailout fund hike because of Slovaks’ feeling that their country, the second poorest in the eurozone, should not bail out richer countries like Greece.
Fico explained that the first vote was actually a protest vote against the rightist government, but that the party actually favored the expansion of the EFSF.
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