Merkel didn‘t want to have to bother with this, of course. Just a few days ago she pooh-poohed demands from the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens for this very opportunity. But then parliamentarians from her own coalition had demanded the right to pore over the deal, with many unhappy at plans to „leverage“ the €440bn bailout fund up to a trillion and beyond. Mindful of a constitutional court judgement in September which ruled the German parliament must be given chance to scrutinise „cases of large expenditures“, Merkel finally agreed.