Greece news: Germany gives green light for Greek bailout in landslide vote

Germany is the last eurozone nation to approve a third bailout of Greece

The German Chancellor is the daughter of a Lutheran minister and member of the evangelical church (Getty) (Getty)

Germany has voted to start talks for a third bailout of Greece by a huge margin.

Of the 549 votes cast, 439 voted in favour, 110 against and 40 abstained. Germany is the last eurozone nation to consent to a third bailout of Greece after Austria gave its approval earlier today.

Half of the MPs in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party voted against the bailout, according to reports, which echoed those on Wednesday that over half the Greek MPs voting against the bailout in Athens were from the ruling Syriza party.

Germany gave its consent despite warnings from the German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble a day earlier that Greece might be better served by exiting the euro temporarily.

In the debate preceding the vote, Merkel defended Schäuble’s comments, saying that an orderly ‘time out’ was not the same as a sudden exit from the euro.

“A time-out cannot be decided against Greece but together with it and the other 18 euro members,” she said.

Schäuble said that everyone in the Bundestag agreed that Greece needed help. ”Every individual in the ruling faction was totally agreed on the question of whether Greece should be helped,“ he said.