Merkel will NOT be bullied on Europe as Macron presses for reform

Mrs Merkel is currently commencing her second set of coalition negotiations with old partners the SPD, after the FDP walked out of negotiations with the Chancellor and the Green Party last week.

French President hoped a coalition with the left-wing SPD would help him advance his , however it now seems less likely he will get his way.

The SPD may have rallied behind Mr Macron’s call for Eurozone reforms during the German election, but it now seems less likely to make this a priority.

Johannes Kahrs, a budget expert for the SPD in parliament, said: “Europe is not a theme where we can simply push things through. We need to strive for a consensus.

“It would be nice if the conservatives went along with the idea of a budget for the Eurozone, but they need to want it.

“It would make no sense to try to bully them into this.”

Several SPD officials have also revealed, some anonymously, that while the party still supports Mr Macron’s ideas, domestic reforms in areas such as health insurance, pensions and employment a will be more important in negotiations.

The news will come as a disappointment to French premier Mr Macron, who .

Although he has in recent months, Mr Macron is nonetheless aware he .

He has made significant interventions in Germany’s political crisis to emphasise that stability for Mrs Merkel will be good for the whole of Europe – and particularly for his own school of thought on EU reform.

He spoke to SPD leader Martin Schulz by phone last week to urge him to do his part to ensure political stability in Germany.

He will also have been hoping the SPD would convince Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, to embrace some of his more controversial Eurozone reform proposals.

Mr Macron has put forward reforms including a Eurozone budget, finance minister and parliament, as well as harmonised corporate tax rates and the transformation of the Eurozone bailout system into a more stable European Monetary Fund.

These ideas were broadly supported in the SPD’s manifesto in the September election.

Indeed, there is still widespread support for these policies within the left-wing party, however this will have to take a back seat while domestic affairs are in the foreground of negotiations.

It comes as Germany faces political instability after poor results in September’s election saw both coalition parties in the previous government, the CDU and SPD, greatly reduce their vote share, losing out in places to the right-wing AfD.

The political situation has brought fresh lows in national polls for Mrs Merkel, and calls for the Chancellor to step down as leader of her party.

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.