Photo Gallery Tilting at Windmills
Before the financial crisis, Angela Merkel liked to present herself as the "climate chancellor," pushing for CO2 cuts and posing with glaciers. Now the chancellor is dusting off her old image as she trys to gain the high ground in the debate about Germany's energy supply.
Merkel is on a four-day "energy tour" of Germany. The first stop was Krempin in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the chancellor visited a wind farm.
But uncomfortable questions about nuclear power are threatening to spoil the photo-ops. An ongoing debate about the future of nuclear energy is currently dominating the headlines in Germany.
The chancellor wants to show that energy is once again a top priority for her.
The government is due to present its new energy strategy at the end of September, and Merkel is determined to regain the initiative before that deadline.
The tour, which will take in wind farms, hydroelectric facilities and nuclear power plants, is being sold as something of an educational field trip.
Locals greet Merkel in Krempin: Germany's Green Party has criticized Merkel's energy tour as nothing more than a "show."
With the new initiative, Merkel is dusting off her former image as the "climate chancellor." Three years ago, Merkel surprised Germany and the world with her ambitious goals for battling climate change and posed for photographs in front of Greenland's glaciers.
