Ahead of a crucial vote by the SPD membership this weekend, which will decide whether the coalition deal can go ahead, Mrs Merkel said the success of the EU required a stable German government.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Macron, she said: “To act in Europe it is vital that Germany has a stable government.
“Germany and France can and should take the lead on many European questions and therefore I understand France’s impatience for us to form a new government.”
The French president backed up the German Chancellor, adding: “Our ambition cannot come to fruition alone. It needs to match Germany’s ambition.”
The two leaders also spoke about their common vision for the future of the European Union, which will firstly involve Mrs Merkel’s grand coalition backing Mr Macron’s eurozone reforms.
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Mrs Merkel said: “It is a Europe that must have a common foreign policy on strategic questions, a Europe that must create its own development policies, a Europe of defence, and it is a Europe that has to be economically strong.”
It comes after Mr Macron made multiple interventions to encourage Mrs Merkel and her prospective coalition partners to speed up the process of forming a government.
He will need Germany’s full support over the coming year in passing a series of sweeping currency reforms to bring eurozone countries closer together.
A commitment to reforms almost exactly reflecting Mr Macron’s plans appeared in the initial plan for government agreed by Mrs Merkel’s CDU, its sister party the CSU, and the SPD.
SPD leader Martin Schulz, a former European Parliament president, hailed his party as having “really achieved something” on “one of the most important questions” by persuading Mrs Merkel to include the commitment in her coalition deal.
However the grand coalition is far from a done deal. Commentators are predicting a close vote for the SPD as its grassroots membership threatens to rebel against the cushy consensus-building at the heart of German politics.
Speaking to Der Spiegel, Mr Schulz warned that failing to approve the coalition could be a disaster for his party.
He said: “If the party reject a coalition it will lead to new elections, and fast. If parties who represent a majority in the Bundestag fail to form a new government, they will be punished by the voters.”