Merkel wants Schaeuble to continue as finance minister

Bloomberg

Wolfgang Schaeuble can expect to be offered another term as German finance minister if Chancellor Angela Merkel wins re-election on Sept. 24, according to four people familiar with the government’s deliberations.
Schaeuble has signaled his interest for the post and Merkel would be willing to pay a high political price to extend his tenure, the people said. All asked not to be named as no decision has yet been made and because Schaeuble’s chances are likely to depend on coalition negotiations after the election.
With his hand on the purse strings of Europe’s biggest economy since 2009, Schaeuble has become one of the
continent’s most divisive politicians, earning plaudits and criticism alike for his
role as the dominant enforcer of fiscal discipline in the euro area. As a result of the strategic power the German treasury bestows, there’s no other role in government Schae-
uble would take, according one of those with knowledge of his thinking.
“Wolfgang Schaeuble is a heart-and-soul politician
and a man with a sense of duty,” said Hans-Peter Repnik, a former Christian Democratic Union lawmaker who has known Schaeuble since
university times and talks
with him regularly. If Merkel offered him a rerun as finance minister, “I do believe that you could count on him once again,” Repnik said.
While all polls show Merkel’s CDU-led bloc is on course to win the election, they point to a coalition government requiring compromises on policy and cabinet posts. The Finance Ministry declined to comment on Schaeuble’s future.