Rolo
10-10-2005, 07:39 AM
Germany's first woman chancellor
When Schroeder shocked the country in May with a call for elections to be brought forward by a year, Merkel was in the perfect position and a divided CDU rallied around her candidacy.
She promised during the campaign to shake up Germany's welfare state, strip down its bureaucracy and repair relations with Washington, strained by Schroeder's vocal opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
But much of her economic program is expected to be diluted during coalition negotiations with the SPD, making her task as chancellor doubly daunting.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/10/10/merkel.profile.reut/
When Schroeder shocked the country in May with a call for elections to be brought forward by a year, Merkel was in the perfect position and a divided CDU rallied around her candidacy.
She promised during the campaign to shake up Germany's welfare state, strip down its bureaucracy and repair relations with Washington, strained by Schroeder's vocal opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
But much of her economic program is expected to be diluted during coalition negotiations with the SPD, making her task as chancellor doubly daunting.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/10/10/merkel.profile.reut/