German Finance minister and eurozone austerity champion Wolfgang Schauble to step down

Mr Schauble, who played a key role in demanding deep and controversial government budget cuts in crisis-hit eurozone countries in the years after 2010, is reportedly to become speaker of the German Parliament

Mr Schauble has served as finance minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2009 (AFP/Getty)

The hard-line German finance minister, Wolfgang Schauble, is to leave his post, according to reports.

Mr Schauble, who played a key role in demanding deep and controversial government budget cuts in crisis-hit eurozone countries in the years after 2010, is to become speaker of the German Parliament.

He became a hate figure in Greece for pressuring the Athens government impose swingeing cuts in the context of a domestic depression as the price of the country's bailout by the rest of the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund.

Some Geek protestors held up cartoons depicting Mr Schauble in Nazi uniform.

In recent months Mr Schauble has also dismissed growing complaints from other countries over Germany's huge current account surplus and criticised the European Central Bank, led by Mario Draghi, over its low interest rates.

The prospective job move of the 75-year old was first reported in the mass market German tabloid Bild.

Ms Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc emerged as the largest party after Sunday's federal elections, but undershot expectations in its share of the vote. The xenophobic Alternative for Germany, or AFD, party also won seats in the Bundestag, the first time the far right has been represented in the chamber since the end of the Second World War.

The CDU/CSU is expected to seek to form a coalition with the economically liberal FDP and the Greens.

It has been speculated that the finance ministry would transfer to the hands of an FDP minister as part of the coalition agreement.

Mr Schauble has served as finance minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2009. He was first elected to the Bundestag in 1972. He was a member of Helmut Kohl's cabinets in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1990 he was subject to an assassination attempt by a mentally ill person, which left him reliant on a wheelchair.