Merkel's win comes with EU prestige intact, but power weakened

Press quote (Deutsche Welle)
Christian Odendahl
25 September 2017
From 
http://www.dw.com/en/merkels-win-comes-with-eu-prestige-intact-but-power-weakened/a-40679910

Christian Odendahl of the Centre for European Reform (CER) said Merkel's position will not be significantly weakened in the eyes of other EU leaders, but the less "wiggle room" she now has domestically will affect her ability to make deals with the bloc. Instead of having a commanding majority in the parliament, Odendahl pointed out, "she'll have to look carefully at all sides to make sure everyone's happy in her coalition – which will be a difficult coalition to begin with."

He believes this will manifest itself in an early and obvious way in the German relationship with France. Odendahl said he expects French President Emmanuel Macron to push Merkel hard to agree on eurozone reform, something which Germany does not get excited about under any circumstances. "It will be one of the issues that Macron will insist on," Odendahl said. "Merkel knows that, in order to reinvigorate the German-French tandem in Europe, she needs to give Macron something. The problem is of course that she is now more restricted than she was before in terms of what she can offer."