But Germany isn’t the obstacle it once was, and the rise of its Green Party could further push both country and continent toward the U.S.
She isn’t running for re-election this September and polls put the Greens in second place, close behind Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union-led alliance.
The Greens have evolved from an antinuclear pacifist party to a pragmatic left-of-center group that regularly participates in coalitions federally and in Germany’s states, called länder.
“Many people formerly thought the Greens would never do economic policy — they only want to do organic farming and vegan Yoga courses,” Sven Giegold, a Green member of the European Parliament and a party spokesman on economic issues, said in an interview.
They want to slash carbon emissions faster by raising carbon prices and phasing out coal and the internal combustion engine, boost taxes on the rich and multinational corporations and promote industries of the future, such as renewable energy and artificial intelligence.
Unlike right-wing populist parties, they are staunchly globalist, supportive of global agreements on trade, human rights and the environment.
A constitutional debt brake requires länder to balance their budgets and limits structural federal deficits to 0.35% of GDP.
The eurozone has a built-in bias toward austerity because of the Stability and Growth Pact and because a heavily indebted country like Italy can’t borrow as much when it no longer controls its own currency.
Ms. Merkel threw her support behind a 750 billion euro European Union recovery fund, financed by Eurobonds, a big step toward a U.S.-style fiscal union.
The Greens would like to amend the debt brake to allow borrowing for public investment, which they argue is economically astute since German interest rates are negative.
That is comparable to President Biden’s infrastructure plan when measured as a share of economic output.
Indeed, the rise of the Greens doesn’t reflect a leftward shift in German politics, but rather disintegrating support for the Social Democrats, Ms. Merkel’s current junior governing partner.