Pushing Germany to Follow Macron Vision

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) will do everything in their power to ensure that Berlin embraces the European ideas of French President Emmanuel Macron, SPD leader Martin Schulz said on Wednesday. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives are hoping to form a coalition with the SPD after failing to get a three-way coalition with the liberal Free Democrats and Greens off the ground. The SPD will debate the idea of once again joining such a coalition at a congress on Dec. 7-9, Reuters reported. Schulz criticized Merkel indirectly for not embracing Macron’s ideas, which include closer cooperation in defense, migration and a deeper integration of the euro zone. “Our congress will be about this tomorrow. What are our possibilities, our options, our instruments for ensuring that Germany embraces these French ideas,” Schulz said at an SPD conference in the party’s Berlin headquarters. “France is making proposals and Germany is not engaging. This is not acceptable,” he added.