Welcome to world politics Macron! Germany DESTROYS new French leader’s Eurobond debt plan
FRENCH president elect Emmanuel Macron has had any hopes of building the Franco-German machine on a bed of debt wiped out today.
Former adviser: Macron will not be able to stand up to Merkel
Mr Macron made a telephone call to Angela Merkel last night following his victory in a bid to shore up support from Europe's hardest task master.
But any hopes he had of persuading the Berlin based Chancellor to enter into the Euro Bonds mutualisation scheme to underpin France's flailing economy were quickly dismissed.
Strongly pro-European Union Emmanuel Macron, who was slated for playing Beethoven's EU anthem Ode to Joy instead of the French National hymn La Marseillaise; before he made his victory speech outside the Lourve in Paris, is not going to get an easy ride from Mrs Merkel.
It also means the Germans will have to break taboos
And he was informed in no uncertain terms this morning that his dreams, which have included setting up a common eurozone treasury with a single finance minister, are likely to hit a brick wall.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble's spokesman told a government news conference today in Berlin that the Chancellor remained opposed to the eurobond debt sharing scheme which Mr Macron has been hoping could work.
When asked about the German government's position on the introduction of joint eurobonds, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said they are opposed to such move.
The controversial Euro Bonds mutualisation scheme is a strategy supported by some state leaders which they claim will help diffuse the crisis currently engulfing the bloc.
It has been talked about for decades but last rose to prominence in 2011 when just 17 member states used the euro.
French president François Hollande fought hard for the debt instrument to be created alongside Spain's PM Mariano Rajoy.
They tried to persuade Germany, Finland and Austria that eurobonds were a good move insisting it would allow closer union and would help to subsidise Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy who are all continuing to struggle.
While the idea has never got off the ground largely due to Angela Merkel's reluctance; the issue is now fully back on the agenda as voters get set to go to the polls on September 24 potentially electing Mrs Merkel to a fourth term in office.
Last month Peter Tauber, the Christian Democratic (CDU) general secretary and Mrs Merkel's campaign manager, slammed former European Parliament president Martin Schulz who had been supportive of the idea.
He said: "He is the man who was for a mutualisation of debt and the man who wanted to allow Turkey to join the European Union."
Last November, a European Union survey found just 24 per cent of German voters questioned said they were in favour of the scheme.
The news comes months after Chancellor Merkel hinted for the first time that she believes the country's former currency the Deutsche Mark is more valuable than the Euro.
In a telling statement issued during the visit of US vice-president Mike Pence to Munich, Frau Merkel revealed even she is becoming concerned with the European wide currency.
Mr Macron, 39, has repeatedly claimed that “the Euro will fail in ten years without reform”, adding he would promote more and better eurozone governance and look at debt options.
Two years ago when he was Hollande's Economy Minister, Macron said Paris and Berlin would have to shed past inhibitions about sovereignty and risk-sharing to "reinvent" Europe and make the eurozone work.
He told Sueddeutsche Zeitung: "For the French, this means we must carry out reforms that break old habits once and for all.
"It also means the Germans will have to break taboos.
"If the member states are not ready for any form of financial transfer in the monetary union, as is the case today, then you can forget the euro and the eurozone."