Even After Election, Germany Likely to Stand Fast - Ms. Merkel and her S.P.D. challenger, Peer Steinbrück, barely mentioned European and foreign policy in their only television debate, except to agree that Germany should have no part in any military response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Mr. Steinbrück accused Ms. Merkel of bungling the euro zone crisis by going slow and inflicting a poisonous dose of austerity measures on Greece and other bailed-out countries. He kept silent about S.P.D.’s support for pooling some euro zone debts, sensing a vote-loser. The chancellor noted that the S.P.D. had voted for all of her euro zone bailout proposals, but she offered no personal vision of Europe’s future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/business/global/even-after-election-germany-likely-to-stand-fast.html