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He added: "If Mrs Merkel wants SPD approval for the Cyprus package, she will have to have very good reasons. But I do not see these at present."
Eurozone finance ministers are currently waiting for a report by US-based consultancy firm Pimco on the long-term health of Cypriot banks. Cyprus expects them to agree a draft memorandum of understanding on the bailout - worth up to €17 billion - at a meeting in Brussels on 21 January and to approve the measures formally on 10 February. But under German law, its finance chief, Wolfgang Schäuble, must get parliamentary approval before signing a legally binding agreement in the EU's Luxembourg-based bailout fund, the ESM.
In addition to the SPD, Green deputies also have ethical reservations on Cyprus, while over 20 MPs in Merkel's ruling coalition oppose her euro policies on principle. Cyprus' anti-money-laundering body, Mokas, is currently investigating whether Cypriot banks were used to launder over €20 million of stolen money for Russian officials linked to the killing of anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.