Germany backs bailout as Athens mulls polls

The German parliament approved a third bailout for Greece yesterday after finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the country should get “a new start”, while in Athens the government agonised over whether to call a snap election.

The Bundestag vote cleared one of the final obstacles to Greece getting funding so that it can make a €3.2bn debt repayment to the ECB today.

But a sizeable number of conservative politicians rebelled against Chancellor Angela Merkel, objecting to pouring yet more billions into Greece.