{"id":40004,"date":"2014-02-06T14:41:40","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T19:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=40004"},"modified":"2014-02-06T14:41:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T19:41:41","slug":"video-merkel-backs-juncker-to-lead-conservatives-in-eu-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2014\/02\/06\/video-merkel-backs-juncker-to-lead-conservatives-in-eu-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Merkel Backs Juncker To Lead Conservatives In EU Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div id=\"grabDiv1767162\"><script language=\"javascript\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/player.grabnetworks.com\/js\/Player.js?id=1767162&#038;content=v197429df54580803ed0032e9f8a484f29fef4178&#038;width=542&#038;height=304&#038;tgt=grabnetworks\"><\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"overlay-adzone\" style=\"overflow:hidden; position:relative\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw her weight behind Luxembourg&#8217;s Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday as the leading conservative candidate in May&#8217;s European Parliament elections, a potential springboard to head the European Commission. It was her first public endorsement of the veteran former prime minister and ex-chairman of euro zone finance ministers and it appeared to dim the prospects of French European Commissioner Michel Barnier, the only other declared candidate. As leader of Europe&#8217;s biggest economy and most powerful conservative party, Merkel wields strong influence in the center-right European People&#8217;s Party (EPP). &#8220;It is no secret that I have a lot of sympathy for Jean-Claude Juncker,&#8221; she said at a joint news conference with new Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who ousted Juncker after a general election last October.<\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/images.grab-media.com\/wochit_politics\/2014\/02\/06\/1240330e5989ee6f691017dcb6ebfa96ed1ac288_thumbnail.jpg' \/><\/p>\n<p><!--post_img[http:\/\/images.grab-media.com\/wochit_politics\/2014\/02\/06\/1240330e5989ee6f691017dcb6ebfa96ed1ac288_preview.jpg]--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw her weight behind Luxembourg&#8217;s Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday as the leading conservative candidate in May&#8217;s European Parliament elections, a potential springboard to head the European Commission. It was her first public endorsement of the veteran former prime minister and ex-chairman of euro zone finance ministers and it appeared to dim &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2014\/02\/06\/video-merkel-backs-juncker-to-lead-conservatives-in-eu-elections\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;VIDEO: Merkel Backs Juncker To Lead Conservatives In EU Elections&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}