Word: chancellor
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...German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the new year has gotten off to a dismal start. During the past week, several members of her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have publicly laid into her laissez-faire leadership style, claiming it has weakened the conservative party's base. And Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, leader of the CDU's partner in government, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), has challenged her government's stances on key foreign policy issues, namely German troop levels in Afghanistan and Turkey's long-delayed bid to join the European Union...
...Westerwelle is opposed to a troop increase and would rather focus on efforts to train the Afghan police. But Merkel's Defense Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a member of the CSU, is reportedly open to the idea of contributing more troops. "The FDP is the problem child of Chancellor Merkel's new government," author Gerd Langguth, who has written a biography of Merkel, tells TIME. "Merkel isn't an ideologue; she's a pragmatist and a consensus builder. Her challenge is to find a compromise between the coalition parties...
...crumble. She knew how to navigate around blockages and when to keep a low profile. Her rise to prominence went all but unnoticed, except by the rivals she deftly derailed along the way. Elected to the first parliament of the reunited Germany, she was appointed a Cabinet minister by Chancellor Helmut Kohl just one year later. He called her das Mädchen, "the girl." She was used to sexism. "There was no real equality in the German Democratic Republic," she says. "There were no female industrialists or members of the politburo." So she smiled her feline smile and made...
While Merkel may be able to look at Germany's domestic conditions with some confidence, there are profound international challenges ahead. Some sense of Merkel's priorities can be gleaned from her Nov. 3 speech to Congress. (She is only the second German Chancellor accorded the honor.) The speech, with its heartfelt and moving thanks and tributes to the U.S., could have been made only by someone who grew up in a Soviet satellite state. Throughout, it was easy to see how her past had shaped her view of the world. There should be, she said, "zero tolerance towards...
...attention of malign authorities nor tempered their dreams before an authoritarian state can trample them, her self-control can seem inhuman. On Nov. 9, 1989, as East German authorities gave up the struggle and opened the Berlin Wall, Merkel kept her regular appointment at a sauna. But the Chancellor's poise and self-confidence cannot obscure the question that the challenges of Afghanistan and Iran pose to her nation: When you are as rich and secure as modern Germany now is, what are your obligations to the world outside? - With reporting by Tristana Moore / Berlin and Mark Thompson / Washington...