All I know is that leaders have a responsibility to their electorate and as such will/should always seek out what is in their interests, which is what makes a confederation so impossible to achieve. Whatever Mrs Merkel meant it will certainly favour her own which is one of the reasons we have chosen to leave the grand alliance, Because we too wish to do what is right for us, what the divorce should not do is for either party to profit from it, that is the challenge we face and its us against them,
Let us hope that common sense prevails!