Berlin, Oct 13 (AFP) France's President Emmanuel Macronexpressed confidence today that German Chancellor AngelaMerkel's potential coalition partners would not oppose hisambitious plans to reform the European Union.
"Support for Europe is in the DNA of both the Greens andthe FDP," Macron told Spiegel weekly in an interview to bepublished tomorrow.
The left-leaning Greens and the pro-business FreeDemocratic Party (FDP) are potential coalition partners ofMerkel, who was reelected last month but without aparliamentary majority.
The French president's optimism came even though theliberal FDP views Macron's proposals for a common eurozonebudget and finance minister sceptically.
The FDP has signalled it will oppose any steps that willunduly burden German taxpayers.
Merkel will open the high-stakes coalition talks onWednesday, and has so far responded cautiously to Macron'sgrand vision for a more closely integrated Europe.
Speaking about his nascent relationship with the Germanleader, Macron said he had sent his landmark speech thatoutlined his EU ambitions to Merkel days before delivering itat the Sorbonne university in Paris.
"After the German electoral campaign as well as on theevening of the election results, I spoke with her. She alsoreceived the text of my speech in advance," he said.
"For me, that's in order to prevent any discussions inGermany that could have forced the chancellor to distanceherself from my speech," he told Spiegel. (AFP)RB.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.