FT — Mr Macron’s election win has led to renewed calls for Germany to support his reformist agenda and make his task more palatable in France by acquiescing in easing eurozone spending rules.
But Angela Merkel has dismissed the idea of helping Emmanuel Macron by relaxing eurozone spending rules, quickly putting the onus on France’s next president to implement economic reforms after his election win.
A day after Mr Macron scored a decisive victory in France’s 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.”
“I don’t see why — as a priority — we should change our policy.” she added.
Germany’s strict stance on spending, and its own restrictive fiscal policies, have been criticised repeatedly by a number of European countries and by Ms Merkel’s own junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats.
Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrat foreign minister, called on Sunday for an end to Ms Merkel’s “financial policy orthodoxy” and said: “Whoever launches reforms [as Mr Macron plans] should not at the same time be forced into strict fiscal austerity.”
However Mrs Merkel suggested that Berlin would be ready to allow Mr Macron more financial leeway only after he starts implementing reforms and after Germany’s election in September.
“What might happen is a policy change after the election,” said a senior lawmaker in the chancellor’s ruling conservative bloc.
Moody’s, the credit rating agency, said En Marche! was unlikely to gain the 289 seats required for an absolute majority in the French National Assembly , meaning a cross-party “cohabitation” government was probable. “There is a very material risk that a period of cohabitation during a Macron presidency could prevent France from implementing policies that would address its growth and fiscal challenges,” the agency said.
