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| La chancelière allemande Angela Merkel pendant une conférence de presse à Berlin, le 20 mai 2020 / AFP/File |
Chancellor
Angela Merkel shattered a long-standing German taboo last week when she
unexpectedly unveiled a plan to fund the EU's coronavirus recovery through
shared debt.
It was a
stunning U-turn after years of German opposition to joint borrowing, but the
risky political gamble appears to be paying off.
The veteran
leader, set to end her political career next year, has already won the backing
of key members of her conservative CDU party for the proposed 500-billion-euro
($544 billion) EU recovery fund, aimed at helping the nations hardest hit by
the pandemic.
Surveys
show that a majority of Germans are also on board.
"I
have no doubt that there is broad support for this proposal in the German
national parliament," Bundestag president and CDU heavyweight Wolfgang
Schaeuble said in an interview with AFP.
The
recovery plan, thrashed out with French President Emmanuel Macron, may
ultimately never win over sceptical EU member states such as Austria and the
Netherlands.
But
observers say tectonic plates have started shifting in Germany and the debate
about what it means to show European solidarity will never be the same again.
'Necessary'
The
Merkel-Macron plan is "a necessary and important proposal during this
time", said Schaeuble, who is also a former finance minister and remains
highly influential in Germany.
"It
calls on Europe to use this crisis to become stronger and more dynamic,"
he said.
Like
Merkel, Schaeuble has long resisted the idea of EU joint borrowing over fears
that fiscally disciplined nations -- such as Germany -- would be forced to pay
for the excesses of their less frugal partners -- such as Italy or Greece.
During his
eight years as Germany's powerful paymaster, Schaeuble was admired at home for
his strict balanced budget policies.
But he
became a hate figure abroad during the eurozone debt crisis for his insistence
on tough austerity for debt-mired nations like Greece.
The
coronavirus pandemic however requires a different response, he argued.
In their
landmark gambit, Merkel and Macron suggested that the European Commission, the
EU's executive arm, borrow on the markets to raise the recovery funds.
The money
would be handed out as grants to help the most stricken among the EU's 27
members bounce back, like Italy and Spain.
The 500
billion euros would be paid back through successive EU budgets, with Germany as
Europe's top economy funding around 27 percent of it.
Top brass
from Merkel's CDU endorsed the Franco-German plan at a meeting of the party's
executive committee on Monday.
"Germany
will only do well if Europe does well," Merkel told participants,
according to a source at the talks.
EU
presidency
Merkel
still faces some obstacles. The CDU's most conservative faction, known as the
Values Union, has slammed the proposal.
The head of
the faction, Alexander Mitsch, has urged German and European lawmakers to
resist the planned fund, which he described as "another step" towards
turning the European Union into a "debt union and a centralised
state".
Similar
criticism has also come from Germany's far-right AfD, the largest opposition
party in the Bundestag, and from the smaller pro-business FDP party.
But 51
percent of Germans support the Merkel-Macron effort, according to a survey by
the Civey institute for Der Spiegel weekly. Around 34 percent of respondents
opposed it.
It is an
early victory for Merkel who is riding high in the polls over her coolheaded,
science-based handling of the pandemic so far, which has helped keep Germany's
COVID-19 deaths lower than in neighbouring nations.
With little
left to lose as she readies to bow out at the next general election, slated for
late 2021, observers say Merkel is staking much of her political capital on the
recovery fund.
"She
was eager to reaffirm Germany's European commitment after pretty harsh
criticism from Italy and Spain" over a perceived lack of solidarity in the
coronavirus crisis, a source close to Macron told AFP.
"She
is also keeping in mind Germany's EU presidency from July. She wants to leave
her mark."
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