Europe Awaiting Outcome of German Elections
Hoping Germany will be willing to take on more responsibility for European Union's fiscal problems
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.
