Revealed: When Merkel slapped down Macron

EMMANUEL MACRON tried to help Greece avoid crippling austerity measures but was frozen out of negotiations by Angela Merkel, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose. The confrontation at the height of the 2015 Greek debt crisis is described in Adults in the Room, the new memoir of Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister who tried but failed to win debt relief for his country.

The episode sheds light on the potentially awkward relationship between the German chancellor and the front runner in the French presidential election.

Mr Macron, an ardent pro-European, formed a strong bond with Mr Varoufakis, making clear that he believed the crippling austerity being demanded of Greece in return for bailouts could lead

to the destruction of the eurozone. Mr Varoufakis writes that on June 28 2015, with Greek banks on the cusp of closure, Mr Macron offered to broker a last-minute deal on debt relief in return for structural reforms.

“I do not want my generation to be the one responsible for Greece exiting Europe,” Mr Macron wrote.

The attempt, however, was blocked by Germany, whose ultra-hawkish finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, was suggesting Greece take a “holiday” from membership of the euro.

Three months later, after Mr Varoufakis had quit in protest at the Greek government’s capitulation to its creditors, Mr Macron explained that the German leader had elbowed him aside.

“Merkel had heard him and, according to Emmanuel, ordered [François] Hollande to keep Macron out of the Greek negotiations,” writes Mr Varoufakis. “Merkel’s spell was every bit as powerful as I had imagined.”

The stand-off poses interesting questions about the Merkel-Macron relationship, which will be pivotal as Europe enters the Brexit negotiations and continued uncertainty over the future of the euro.

Mr Macron is proposing sweeping integration for the eurozone, including a budget and finance minister, moves which Germany has resisted.

Greece is now preparing to sign a deal with the EU and IMF for the next tranche of its €7billion (£5.89billion) bailout, committing itself to more sweeping pension cuts and income tax rises.

Greek debt stands at 179 per cent of its gross domestic product, about €315billion. The country has endured six consecutive years of recession.