EU's future makes road bumpy for Merkel, EU leaders

Berlin

ANGELA Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May, the German, French and British leaders, share a common fate. To take a phrase from Mrs May's Friday speech describing the UK's approach to leaving the European Union (EU), which was couched in refreshingly realistic terms: None of them "can have exactly what we want" in forthcoming searches for compromise over the future of Europe.

Mrs Merkel, still Europe's pivotal leader, has won important breathing space with Sunday's announcement of a relatively grudging "Yes" vote prolonging the Berlin "grand coalition" - by 66 per cent to 34 per cent - from the 460,000 members of her junior partners, the Social Democratic Party (SPD).