Angela Merkel facing political fight of her life over France and Greece austerity rejection

The measures, the chancellor assured German voters, would prevent eurozone
countries going bust and running up bail-out bills for Germany.

The demand of Francois Hollande to renegotiate the fiscal pact, to water it
down, threatens to unravel Mrs Merkel’s strategy just at the moment when
voters across Europe, including her own, baulk at painful cuts to public
services.

The mood is hardening. Volker Kauder, the leader of the chancellor’s
parliamentary Christian Democrats, attacked a French demand seen in Germany
as an attempt to wriggle out of reforms, such increasing pension ages.

“Germany is not here to finance French election promises,” he said.

Domestically too, she is under fire. On Sunday, as Greek and French voters
rebelled, Germans in Schleswig-Holstein inflicted the worst defeat on the
Christian Democrats, with votes going to the anti-austerity centre-left.

On May 13, Mrs Merkel faces defeat in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia, the
country’s biggest region.

Die Welt, the influential German newspaper that is closely allied to the
Chancellor, warned yesterday that “people’s desire for a fundamental
change in political and social conditions” are a direct challenge to
her personal authority.

“These elections were a clear rejection of the Angela Merkel’s system in
Europe,” it concluded.

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