“Whoever it will be, the federal government and the chancellor will work well and reliably with him. That is the nature of the particular French and German partnership and friendship,” Steffen Seibert told reporters.

The centre-right Merkel has publicly backed the conservative candidate and incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, and has become embroiled in a war of words with his Socialist rival Francois Hollande over the European Union’s fiscal pact.

Late Thursday, Hollande reiterated his demand that the pact – which seeks to strengthen European fiscal rules amid the crisis – should be renegotiated to include measures aimed at boosting growth in the debt-mired eurozone.

“It’s not Germany that’s going to decide for all of Europe,” Hollande told a prime-time French television interview. 

He was replying to comments from Merkel, who told the WAZ regional news group that the pact was “not renegotiable.”

Seibert reiterated Berlin’s position, saying that the pact had already been signed by 25 EU leaders and denied that Merkel was becoming involved in the French election campaign or was hitting out at Hollande.

“Whoever becomes president, they are both pro-European. That is already a good thing,” said Seibert.

“Growth has been for a very long time the second pillar of Germany’s crisis-fighting strategy,” said Seibert, noting that EU leaders had debated ways to boost the economy at their last two summits and would do so at their next gathering.

“Germany will, as it has done for several months, very actively look for growth-boosting measures with its partners,” said Seibert.  

A debate has broken out in Europe about the best way to fight the ongoing debt crisis, often portrayed as a battle between austerity-fixated Germany and others who want to throw off the hairshirt and focus on growth.

The president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, this week called for a “growth compact”.

But Seibert reiterated that the best way to push the economy forward was by enacting far-reaching reforms to the eurozone economy.

“Germany has in the past few months pushed for growth-boosting measures to be discussed at European level,” he said. 

“As for the suggestion of Mr Draghi, I can only repeat … that he is correct and closely in agreement with our position, that growth should be fostered through structural reform.

“That is the type of sustainable growth that provides benefits for people in the long-term,” concluded the spokesman.