Berlin - An overwhelming majority of German lawmakers are expected Friday to back an extension of Greece's rescue package despite plans by a group of members of chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative political bloc to rebel against her government in the vote.
A straw poll of the members of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian-based allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), taken on Thursday showed that 22 lawmakers will vote against the Greek plan and five will abstain in the Bundestag ballot.
Four of the Bundestag's 64 members belonging to the hard-left opposition Die Linke party have indicated they also want to vote against the four-month extension to protest the fiscal austerity measures that have been imposed on Greece.