Merkel rules out eased eurozone spending rules to help Macron
Stefan Wagstyl, Arthur Beesley and Duncan Robinson, Financial Times, 08.05.2017
Quotes
Angela Merkel has dismissed the idea of helping Emmanuel Macron by relaxing eurozone spending rules, quickly putting the onus on Frances next president to implement economic reforms after his election win.
A day after Mr Macron scored a decisive victory in Frances presidential election, the German chancellor, the most powerful national leader in Europe, said she wanted to help France but said: German support cannot replace French policymaking. [...]
Observers in Brussels said the president-elect must be able to show rapid progress on his domestic agenda to reinforce his credentials in Berlin.
If you see it now from the German perspective, theres huge relief in Berlin that he became president but there still is a certain degree of fear that he wont be able to reform his own country, said Janis Emmanouilidis, director of studies at the European Policy Centre think-tank in Brussels.
The French leader would have to show progress by the time a new German government is in place at the end of the year, Mr Emmanouilidis said. [...]
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