The New Chancellor

The wait is over: Germany has a new Chancellor who will soon be turning the "executive men's-room" into the "executive powder-room" ...

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After weeks of negotiations following the German Federal Election of September 18, 2005 the two main opposing parties, SPD and CDU/CSU, entered into a Grand Coalition in order to make up the required majority of seats in the Bundestag. The two parties reached an agreement whereby the CDU/CSU candidate, Angela Merkel, will succeed Gerhard Schröder in the office of Chancellor and the SPD will fill 8 of a total of 16 ministerial posts. Merkel is the first woman ever to hold the position of German Chancellor.

Angela Dorothea Merkel (born July 17, 1954) grew up in the communist GDR (the former East Germany). She graduated with a doctorate in physics. In 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she entered the political arena, aided by her mentor Helmut Kohl. Her political career culminated, 13 years later, in her election to chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and leader of the conservative opposition in the lower house of the German Parliament (Bundestag) under former Chancellor Schröder.

It remains to be seen, over the coming months, what course she will steer in German national and international policy and, by extension, in the future of the EU (European Union), of which Germany is a powerful and influential member.

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