Germany gave its authorisation on Friday for the eurozone and Greece to negotiate a third bailout amid warnings from Angela Merkel that the alternative was chaos and that a previous suggestion that Greece take a breather from the eurozone was a non-starter.
The German public and many of its politicians are wary of giving more aid to Greece which they say will be unable to crawl from its financial pit with another €80 billion added to its existing debt mountain.
Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble has voiced his well-founded doubts about shovelling more cash into the Greek economy and is unconvinced the Greeks are really up to the austerity measures demanded as part of the third bailout.
Austerity measures include cuts in state pensions, a rise in VAT and €50 billion from state asset sales to be held in an account to which Greece has no access.
Schauble's suggestion of a temporary Grexit has been rejected by Merkel as having no sense as Greece and the other 18 eurozone countries would not agree on a Grexit if it came to a vote.
A poll published today showed that 53% of German voters wanted its parliament to back further bailout negotiations with 42% percent against more German money heading south.
The Greek parliament approved on Thursday legislation enabling it to negotiate a third bailout offer with Tsipras having to rely on support from opposition MPs in the face of rebellion from many in his Syrisa party.
The European Central Bank has handed out some emergency funding to keep the country's banks from collapsing prior to their reopening next week with capital controls still in place.
Eurogroup finance ministers approved €7 billion in short term loans to Greece so it is able to pay the ECB next week and pay off its IMF arrears.
