Weekend Economists Take a Chance and Call a Bluff July 26-28, 2013

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55. Germany's Schaeuble set to stay centre stage in euro crisis

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/28/uk-germany-schaeuble-idUKBRE96R02220130728


(Reuters) - Two years ago, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was on the point of giving up his role as iron fist in the euro zone debt crisis, but the 70-year-old champion of closer European integration now seems likely to remain on Europe's centre stage.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made her independent-minded and famously irritable former rival finance minister in 2009, is expected to reappoint him if, as widely forecast, she wins a third term in the September 22 parliamentary poll.

Differences in their visions of Europe may curtail some of his plans, but the enormous clout he wields among European policymakers dealing with the four-year-old euro zone debt crisis shows no sign of waning.

"German hegemony of the Eurogroup has been growing over the last two years and is increasing almost by the day now," said an official who sits with Schaeuble in the 17-member group.