France

So can the most structurally sovereigntist country in the eurozone, France, agree on the abandonment of sovereignty that Merkel is right to insist on? Common debt liability in some form needs to be accompanied by greater political and economic integration; that's just logical.

Jonathan Laurence, associate professor of political science at Boston College and author of The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims, believes the fact that one-fifth of the French electorate voted for Front National shows "serious fault lines" in terms of satisfaction with government, particularly as the front's members "do not hesitate to play fast and loose with some pretty vile politics".