Rutte survives Greek bail-out debate

Prime minister Mark Rutte survived a motion of no confidence and came through the parliamentary debate on the Greek bail-out on Wednesday afternoon with his authority more or less in tact.

Parliament was debating the bail-out, the eurozone crisis and the mistakes made by Rutte when he announced the amount of money agreed by the European Union for Greece.
In earlier debate on Tuesday MPs found the answers given by the prime minister and finance minister Jan Kees de Jager ‘unsatisfactory’.
The no confidence motion was called for by Social party leader Emile Roemer but only the animal welfare party PvdD supported him.
Rutte apologised to parliament for his mistake when announcing the amount of money agreed for the Greek bail-out but reiterated that the figures he gave were not wrong.
Clear explanation
MPs did support a liberal D66 motion that the government must provide a clear explanation of the future of the eurozone. The motion followed announcement of a French-German call for an ‘economic government’ to control the eurozone. MPs want to hear from Rutte how EU member states will be forced to control their budgets.
Rutte also agreed to become ‘more European’, a reference to alliance partner Wilders and his PVV party which is against the EU and the Greek bail-out.
After the debate, Rutte said he had been given a ‘broad mandate’ by parliament to take a tough stand in Europe for ‘tough sanctions’ against member states which break EU budget rules.
A vote on the Greek bail-out is unlikely to take place for several weeks because details have yet to be worked out.