DW: Merkel's ailing coalition partner FDP seeks electoral revival as defender of euro

10 March 2013

German chancellor Angela Merkel's Free Democrat (FDP) coalition allies, battling the threat of electoral extinction, have presented themselves as defenders of the euro against threats inside and outside Germany.

Party leaders warned France and other euro partners it would not allow them to endanger the single currency by undermining austerity conditions imposed in exchange for crisis-era loans. After a difficult four years in office, and with support of just 4 per cent in polls, FDP leader Philipp Rösler has presented his party as the final bulwark against higher inflation, a “debt union” and an unstable euro.

“We view attempts to impose political influence on the independence of the European Central Bank as lethal”, said Mr Rösler. “That’s a threat to stable money. That is why we as Free Democrats say: ‘Hands off our ECB’.”

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