German Papers "Heroine of Brussels" Can Do No Wrong
Just a few months ago, Germany's newspapers were calling Angela Merkel dull and passionless. Her opponents were saying she wasn't strong or charismatic enough to rule Germany. Even some members of her own conservative party had written her off after September's lukewarm campaign victory. But in the weeks since she took office as chancellor on November 22, her image has been transformed to the point where it seems she can do no wrong. Now Merkel is being feted in the German press as "the heroine of Brussels" after breaking a deadlock over the European Union's budget in 30 hours of tireless mediation. And her government has just negotiated the release of Susanne Osthoff, held hostage in Iraq for 23 days. She's become Germany's most popular politician, according to new opinion polls.
Even the left-wing daily Die Tageszeitung can't help but laud her negotiating skills. "Angela Merkel, the Talented Tactician," reads the paper's headline. The editors laud Merkel's frugality and cite German politicians who praise her as the "new star in the European sky," who used female pragmatism to separate Europe's two most notorious squabblers, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac. She even managed to improve German-Polish ties by handing Poland 100 million euros in funds that had been largely been earmarked for eastern Germany, writes the paper.
The conservative daily Die Welt has effusive praise, too. "It's astonishing how skillfully Chancellor Merkel is pursuing her European program," the paper writes. By easing Germany out of the "clasp of the French," Merkel gave herself the maneuvering room she needed to overcome French intransigance and mediate a deal under which Britain will reduce its budget rebate substantially and France will at least talk about agricultural subsidies.
Business daily Financial Times Deutschland says the last time a woman made such an impact in Brussels was in the 1980s, when handbag-swinging British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher negotiated the British budget rebate. But while Thatcher "made an impression with her ice-cold hardness," Merkel seems to have impressed European leaders with charm, writes the paper. "Angela Merkel demonstrated last weekend that she has summit skills. Now she must prove that she can develop a vision for Europe."
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says Merkel has managed to establish the new German government as patron of the EU's new eastern members, such as Poland, which joined last year. Her "calm negotiation" has helped give the EU a long-term financial plan and avoided deepening the crisis that rocked the EU in May, when French and Dutch voters rejected a proposed constitution.
"Why Does Merkel Always Get What She Wants?" writes the conservative Bild Zeitung, which lists five possible secrets of her success, including "1. Her star sign is Cancer," and, "3. She's cold-blooded and good at exploiting the weaknesses of others," which her opponents in Germany may have noticed already, and "4. She brings her charm to bear in negotiations. Besides, men don't find it so bad to lose to a woman."
Finally, the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung sums up the new European order by running a cartoon of Merkel as a circus trainer, whipping a cheerful-looking Blair and Chirac. Before the summit, writes the paper, Britain "didn't want to become European; rather, Europe was supposed to conform to the island's wishes." But that was before Frau Merkel came to Brussels, bearing a whip called compromise.
