INSIDE EUROPE - Even After Election, Germany Likely to Stand Fast. "Policy makers are hoping a general election next Sunday in Germany will allow the important business of integrating Europe to finally move forward, but they hardly expect a radical shift in Germany’s stance on major issues. From Athens to Lisbon and Paris to Rome, governments want Berlin get behind a banking union and also adopt a more expansionist economic policy to help drive growth and fight unemployment in stagnant euro zone economies. European officials largely expect Chancellor Angela Merkel to win a third term. Many hope that Ms. Merkel, a conservative, will have to form a grand coalition with the center-left Social Democrats, or S.P.D., whose pro-Europe leanings tend to make them more open to stimulus measures than the current partner in the governing coalition, the center-right Free Democratic Party, or F.D.P. But even if Ms. Merkel is forced to team up with the more liberal S.P.D., Germany’s stance on major European issues is unlikely to shift."

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