Politics

Europe Awaiting Outcome of German Elections

Hoping Germany will be willing to take on more responsibility for European Union's fiscal problems

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European policymakers have higher hopes than expectations of change in German policies after a general election next Sunday that has kept much European business on hold for months.

From Athens to Lisbon and Paris to Rome, governments want Berlin to move forward fast with a European Union banking union and adopt a more expansion economic policy that would help drive growth and fight unemployment in a stagnant euro zone.

EU partners expect conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel to win a third term, and many hope she will have to form a grand coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), seen as more pro-European and pro-stimulus than her current center-right Free Democratic allies in government.