Germans agonise over Macron euro plans
Merkel’s challenger open to joint eurozone budget
BERLIN, May 10, (RTRS): After cheering Emmanuel Macron’s win over his far-right rival in the French presidential election, German politicians have begun sparring over how Berlin should respond to his demands for closer European integration.
Martin Schulz, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) and main challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany’s looming election, weighed in on Wednesday, backing Macron’s idea to create a budget for the eurozone to fund investments.
His remarks to German weekly Die Zeit followed comments from Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday suggesting that some of Macron’s ideas were unrealistic because they would require politically divisive changes to the EU treaty.
The jousting comes a week before Macron is expected to travel to Berlin to meet with Merkel.
He is expected to take over as president on Sunday, a week after defeating National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who had threatened to take France out of the EU and the euro.
During his election campaign, the 39-year-old Macron promised to reinvigorate the Franco-German relationship and press ahead with closer integration, including the creation of a finance minister and budget for the eurozone.
“If the euro group states are to tackle things together, joint budget financing would be sensible,” said Schulz in support of Macron. “If we want to get out of this endless cycle of meaningless and resultless summit declarations, we need a strategy for creating more growth and jobs in the eurozone.”
Macron has said his priority this year will be to implement economic reforms at home and his aides say he has no plans to begin a potentially contentious discussion with Berlin on eurozone reform before a new German government is in place.
“I expect him to be quite open with Merkel about what he wants to do but also mindful that the election puts the chancellor in a difficult position. He won’t be putting big bazookas on the table,” one person close to Macron told Reuters.
Instead, the person said, Macron could discuss with Merkel the idea of setting up Franco-German working groups in the coming months in areas where there is appetite for cooperation, including security and defence, energy and taxation.
Macron’s eagerness to seek a dialogue with Berlin on Europe, at a time when many economists worry whether the single currency bloc is sustainable in its current form, hasn’t stopped German politicians from openly criticising his ideas.
Christian Lindner, the leader of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), a potential coalition partner for Merkel if she beats Schulz in September, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on Wednesday that he expected an “uncomfortable” discussion with Macron on Europe.
“He is for an EU in which responsibilities are standardised and blurred,” Lindner said, accusing Schulz’s SPD of conspiring with Macron to promote higher government debt.
The criticism has also flowed in the other direction. Top Macron adviser Jean-Pisani Ferry said last week that Germany’s fixation on the idea that other European countries want its money had clouded its view on the need for closer eurozone integration.