For many pro-Europeans, Merkel’s re-election could herald a new era of ever closer political and economic integration in the region, especially given her support of French President Emmanuel Macron’s calls for reforms.
Earlier this year, Macron and Merkel agreed in principle to create a European finance minister, euro zone parliament, a common euro zone budget and more public investments, as well as a more coordinated effort on reforms.
While reforms are welcomed generally, the idea of a pan euro zone finance minister and budget has not gone down so well in all quarters. For one, Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said in May that Macron’s ideas were “unrealistic” as they would require EU treaty changes, and suggested instead developing the existing European Stability Mechanism, the euro zone’s bailout fund. In addition, the leader of one of Merkel’s potential coalition partners, the FDP, also told CNBC on Saturday that proposals for a euro zone budget were “unimaginable.”
While Ambrosius agreed that it was “a bit premature” to talk about a European finance minister, he said that the most important thing to recognize about the election was that there was “very limited risk” of a shock result.
