German Papers Now Sort Out Germany, Frau Chancellor
"Respect, Frau Chancellor!" writes tabloid Bild Zeitung, praising her for showing courage and tenacity in clinching the job. "No, she won't copy Schröder. No coquetry, no public tears for the cameras, no declarations of love on TV, no 'look at me I can kick a football' photos." Angela Merkel is different, writes Bild. Her style is to "batten down the hatches and get to work. For that she deserves respect."
Her publicity-shy husband, chemistry professor Joachim Sauer , may not be too happy at having made it onto the front page of the country's best-selling paper under the headline "Where Was Her Husband?" Sauer watched proceedings on television from his office at a research institute 25 kilometers away, the paper writes adding that "the man by her side' isn't a role he likes." What a contrast with Merkel's predecessors, it adds. "Gerhard Schröder's wife Doris always sat in the gallery, fretting with her husband and smiling at him encouragingly."
The liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung says Merkel's rise to power is an important symbol of equal rights for women. Then it starts ripping into her. It's a worrying thought that Merkel would have led Germany into George W. Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" during the Iraq crisis if she had been chancellor then, writes the paper. In addition, the new government program agreed by her conservatives and Schröder's Social Democrats shows few traces of the reform agenda she fought the election on. "At the moment, public confidence in the grand coalition is greater than the confidence the coalition has in itself," the editorial continues. It goes on to list mistakes she has made. "Merkel has won the chancellery, but she hasn't won the future yet," says the paper.
Conservative Die Welt says Merkel deserves respect for being the first woman and the first easterner to become chancellor. "Germany has its first female chancellor. That alone is historic," writes the paper. But it reminds readers that despite all the celebration and congratulation, Merkel heads a government that faces the almost impossible task of clearing up the mess caused by decades of neglect and mistakes under previous governments. "The public budgets are ruined, the family silver has been sold off, the welfare system is at risk of collapse and the economic data are depressing," writes the paper in its cheery editorial. As if that weren't enough, Die Welt warns Merkel not to be misled by her overwhelming majority in parliament. "That's no sign of public approval, far from it."
Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says Merkel's election symbolizes the rise to power of the generation of "1989ers" - politicians who grew up in communist East Germany and, after the demise of that regime, took on responsibility in the unified Germany. "Many people find her sober style too cool. But given the state the country is in, it's appropriate," writes the paper. But it injects a note of skepticism, saying Merkel will have to go much further in winning public backing for necessary reforms than she managed in the September election, when support for her conservatives fell far short of expectations. Even "talented salesmen" like Schröder and his Green coalition partner Joschka Fischer failed to win over the public for their economic reforms, writes the paper. Merkel's greatest weakness is her dependence on Schröder's Social Democrats, it adds. The fact that many of them didn't vote for her in Tuesday's
formal parliamentary election is a sign that she doesn't have the SPD's unconditional support, it concludes.
