Merkel won due to Euro crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's triumphant victory in Sunday's general elections will be beneficial for the country's ties with the European Union, two European analysts said on Monday. "Merkel won not despite the euro crisis but because of the euro crisis," said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the think tank European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels. "The results show the voters trusted her far more than any other political leader. It was a personal victory for Merkel but also due to the euro crisis in part," he added. For his part, Janis Emmanouilidis, EPC Senior Policy Analyst, noted that Merkel's conservative CDU-CSU bloc got 41.5 percent of the votes said it "is an exceptionally good result." "Voters trusted her to defend German interests. The EU was a key issue and one of the main topics in this campaign," he said. "We will see more continuity in German-EU ties than any revolutionary tendency," said Janis. We can see more initiative for the EU banking Union, indicated Emmanouilidis. He said that as Merkel did not get a clear majority in the parliament a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) is most likely now. If there is a grand coalition with the SPD the second most important job after the Chancellor for the EU is that of the finance minister and it is expected that the current minister Wolfgang Schauble will retain his job, said the analyst. He has a large support in the German population and it will be difficult for Merkel to say no to him, said Janis. In the case of coalition with the SPD, the party will want its ex-foreign minister Frank Meier Steinmeir to replace the current minister Guido Westerwelle who is considered weak in the EU foreign policy affairs, he speculated. The two analysts were speaking at an event organized by the EPC on the implications of the German election result for the EU.