The tally also marked a narrow but significant political victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel, as fewer lawmakers from her own coalition broke away to join the no vote than had been expected.
Passage in Germany — Europe’s largest economy and the only country with the fiscal wherewithal to pull fellow countries in the euro currency zone out of trouble — moved the struggling rescue forward. But analysts said it was likely to offer only momentary relief rather than anything like a permanent solution.
And for Mrs. Merkel, the victory merely provided breathing room after a divisive debate within her own parliamentary bloc that has weakened her grip on power at a critical moment.
Opposition politicians had argued that the vocal opposition within her ranks meant that Mrs. Merkel had lost control of her coalition and needed to dissolve the government. But in the end, the measure passed without needing opposition support, giving her the so-called chancellor’s majority, which had been so called into question in recent weeks, up to the final moment.
With the future of Europe and the euro hanging in the balance, the vote was 523 to 85 in favor of the expanded bailout fund, with 3 legislators abstaining. Within her coalition, Mrs. Merkel received 315 votes, four more than needed for the chancellor’s majority.
As a result, Germany agreed to an increase in its share of the guarantees to 211 billion euros, or $285 billion, from 123 billion euros.
“We have an existential national interest in the stability of Europe and the euro,” said Volker Kauder, who spoke for the Christian Democrats in the debate on the floor of the Parliament, the Bundestag.
In a stark reminder of just how much is at stake, Italy went to the credit markets Thursday with its first debt auction since the ratings agency Standard Poor’s cut the country’s credit ratings. The third-largest economy in the euro zone, after Germany and France, sold 7.9 billion euros in bonds — but at sharply higher rates because of concerns that Italy, like Greece and Portugal, will have difficulty paying off its debts.
With German approval, 6 of the 17 euro zone countries still need to pass the agreement reached July 21. A significant hurdle was overcome when Finland on Wednesday passed the bailout fund despite domestic objections and an unresolved dispute over its demand for collateral from Greece. But leading politicians in Slovakia have been highly critical of the agreement, with a division in the governing coalition in the Slovak capital of Bratislava over whether to help Greece, which is richer than Slovakia.
Under the fretful gaze of investors, the meandering approval process has revealed ever more fissures, layers of decision making and complexity in Europe that adds up to a worrisome inability to react quickly and decisively to upheaval in fast-moving financial markets. Analysts have already said that the fund, even if it passes, will in all likelihood be too small to defend against attacks on deeply indebted European countries.
Politicians, Mrs. Merkel included, have resisted calls for deeper integration of fiscal policies between the countries of the euro zone, or the issuance of common debt referred to as euro bonds.
In the historic Reichstag building graffiti from Red Army soldiers who conquered the capital of Nazi Germany still adorn the walls. Outside the Reichstag, the home of the German Parliament, a protester held up a sign reading “Europe Finance Suicide Fund,” a play on the name for the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.
“The chancellor’s path is extremely contentious, with the public clearly opposed because it is unclear what limit there is to how far Germany has to jump in to cover Greece’s debt,” said Werner J. Patzelt, a political scientist at the Technical University in Dresden.
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, tried to assure members of Parliament as well as the public during a debate Thursday that a vote in favor of the measure did not represent a blank check, and that any additional funds would have to be approved by the Bundestag. “That is not up for debate,” Mr. Schäuble said.
Those assurances were not enough for some members of Mrs. Merkel’s party. “We borrow the money from our children and grandchildren — we don’t have it,” said Klaus-Peter Willsch, a member of Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democrats who said he would vote against the measure.
With the support of the center-left Social Democrats and the Green Party, the bailout fund passed with relative ease. But the vote evolved in the process into a test for Mrs. Merkel’s government. Without a reliable majority to push though legislation the chancellor would be reduced to a toothless and ineffective figurehead.
“You and your government, Mrs. Chancellor, lack the most important political quality in times of danger: Confidence,” said Peer Steinbrück, a leading Social Democrat and Mrs. Merkel’s finance minister during the financial crisis under her previous government.
Where a similar victory in the United States would be hailed as a bipartisan success story, in the German parliamentary system, power rests on the ability to hold together the members of the coalition that make up the majority.
Political parties in Germany have much more sway over members. Candidates are nominated by the party rather than competing in primary elections.
“Behind the scenes her people were working hard on the dissenters,” said Timo Grunden, a political scientist at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
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