Merkel becomes Germany's first woman chancellor
By Noah BarkinBERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel was elected Germany's first woman chancellor on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote that ends months of political uncertainty and puts her atop a fragile coalition that must prove it can revive the economy.
The conservative Merkel won 397 votes in the 614-seat Bundestag lower house of parliament, easily securing the majority she needed to become Germany's eighth post-war chancellor and the first to have grown up in the former communist east.
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Christian Democrat (CDU) leader and German Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel arrives for a meeting of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in Berlin November 22, 2005. (REUTERS/Michael Dalder) |
Merkel's confirmation as chancellor comes two months after her conservatives narrowly edged Schroeder's party in a general election she had been expected to win easily.
The result left the 51-year old pastor's daughter with no choice but to form a coalition with her long-time rivals. During tough month-long coalition negotiations, Merkel had to abandon her plans for a shake-up of the German social welfare system.
Her government is vowing to repair relations with Washington, strained by Schroeder's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
It has also promised to resuscitate the economy, once Europe's motor but now one of the most stagnant in the 25-nation EU, and cut unemployment that hit post-war highs under Schroeder.
She must hope that the central plank of her coalition programme -- an agreement to bring the budget deficit back within EU borrowing limits by 2007 through higher sales taxes -- will not get in the way of achieving her goal by cramping consumer spending and growth.
Polls show a majority of Germans are convinced her unwieldy alliance -- the country's first "grand coalition" since the 1960s -- will not last a full four-year term.
CHANGE IN STYLE
Merkel represents a generational change and a break in style from the flamboyant Schroeder, who favoured Italian suits and fat cigars and seemed most at ease when in the media spotlight.
Her sober, low-key approach has been mocked in the German media, but some commentators believe it is tailor-made for her new coalition, which bridges right and left and will require delicate management.
"Her dislike of the theatrical in politics, of the show and big words, fits with the new sobriety of Germany's younger generation," said German daily newspaper Handelsblatt.
Like her political mentor, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel has been underestimated throughout her career. That helped her push aside rivals in her male-dominated, heavily Catholic CDU and may play to her advantage again.
Her cabinet is dominated by pragmatists, and the government's stability could also be helped by a strong sense within both rival camps that failure would prompt voters to abandon them in any early elections.
"Damned to succeed," was the headline of an editorial in top-selling German daily Bild.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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