Last Friday, France’s Europe minister Clement Beaune warned Paris will veto a “bad” post-Brexit trade deal.
Mr Beaune said: “I want to tell our fishermen, our producers, the citizens who are listening that we will not accept a deal with bad terms.
“If a good agreement cannot be reached, we will oppose it.
“Each country has a veto right.”
Mrs Merkel, who holds the EU presidency, has repeatedly told the bloc it must be more realistic in accepting Britain’s negotiating position in fishing and trade talks.
It is widely believed the German Chancellor will play an influential role in brokering any UK-EU trade agreement in the next few days.
Other European leaders expect her to push Mr Macron to compromise on his hardline demands to secure continued access to Britain’s coastal waters after the end of the year.
In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Italian MEP Marco Campomenosi said: “I think Merkel will have a crucial role in the Brexit talks.
“After all, she was the one who found an agreement on the rule of law that would have seen Poland and Hungary on board.
JUST IN: Iceland opened door to special fishing partnership for Brexit Britain
“She didn’t help them out, she won’t help here.”
Political journalist Isabel Hardman added in her Spectator report: “Cameron’s reliance on his ‘naughty nephew’ relationship with Angela Merkel led to him getting such an unconvincing renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe that he had to stop talking about it during the EU referendum campaign.
“Those who understand the German Chancellor argued that she really was just being polite when she appeared to leave the door open to a deal.”
According to 2014 book ‘All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain’s Political Class’ by British journalist Tim Shipman, Mrs Merkel was responsible for “destroying” the chances of Britain getting a good deal before the EU referendum.
In 2016, former Prime Minister David Cameron attempted to negotiate a more favourable deal with the EU, but his plans were scuppered by the manoeuvring of the German Chancellor.
After nine months of negotiating, Mr Cameron arrived in Brussels for crunch talks on February 19, 2016.
The former Prime Minister made two big gambles before arriving at the summit, namely his bid to block Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as Commission President and the call to support Donald Tusk’s bid to be President of the European Council.
Mr Cameron had sought Mrs Merkel’s backing when he blocked Mr Juncker’s appointment and initially “he thought he had it”.
However, Mr Shipman noted Sir Ivan Rogers, then Britain’s Permanent Representative to the EU, warned Mr Cameron that Mrs Merkel would betray him again.
That evening, Peter Altmaier, Mrs Merkel’s chief of staff at the German Chancellery, made a deal with Martin Selmayr, the German Commission insider who later became Mr Juncker’s chief of staff, to ensure that he got the job.
Mr Cummings’ position was reinforced by former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell, who also recently told Express.co.uk that Mr Johnson should not count on Mrs Merkel.
He said: “I think the interests of France and Germany are still so closely aligned.
“I don’t think we should count on Franco-German divisions, anyway.
“It is not in our interests and it is more complex than that.”
He added: “I think the split is between European leaders who are still listening to British Remainers.
“Quite often ex-civil servants, or former Prime Ministers like Tony Blair or John Major, who ever since the referendum have been telling people in Brussels what they want to hear.
“They have been trying to overturn the referendum result, giving them a complete misreading of what it is actually happening in the UK.”
