Der Spiegel: Uncertainty Dogs Europe After German Election

Macron und Merkel

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September 26, 2017, Der Spiegel: Uncertainty Dogs Europe After German Election

"Faced with a surge in right-wing populism and a potential coalition with the fiscally liberal Free Democrats, Angela Merkel may not have the mandate for major changes. (...)

Now politicians in Brussels may have to get used to a new tune from Berlin. "It is an illusion in Brussels that everything will be better after the election," says Fabio De Masi, a member of the European Parliament with the Left Party who will soon have a seat in the new Bundestag. His comments are echoed by Guntram Wolff, the director of the influential Bruegel think tank in Brussels, who says that "with the AfD and FDP, far more than 20 percent of the members of the next Bundestag will, to varying degrees, take a critical view of Europe's bailout policies," adding that "this will have consequences for the members of parliament from other parties, particularly Merkel's conservatives."

This brings to mind how Merkel's coalition with the FDP between 2009 and 2013 was constantly in danger of losing its absolute majority in parliament at the outset of the euro crisis, when politicians were debating bailout packages for Greece and the introduction of the ESM bailout fund."