Germany's leading political parties continue to put on a show of harmony in Berlin under Chancellor Angela Merkel. They don't exactly have any reason to do otherwise: according to the latest polls, more than 60 percent of Germans are happy with the coalition government between the Christian and Social Democrats.

Civility seems to be the modus operandi in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, and it has set the tone recently of the political discourse in a country know for its brash political sparring. Today there are few rancorous parliamentary debates like the one that took place during the last general election, when Green Party leader Joschka Fischer in an ungentlemanly moment described Angela Merkel as a "soufflé" puffed up by opinion polls that would soon deflate. Now she is chancellor, securely in office.

But the German-language press is still asking itself the question whether that rude diagnosis still applies. Will the hopes indicated in the polls yet pull her down if they turn to disappointment? Everywhere, the main question is how long the harmony will last if the government proves too lightweight to be a locomotive for jobs and growth. Manfred Güllner of the polling institute Forsa believes that the political parties are running the risk of making themselves superfluous. He writes in the Financial Times Deutschland that, oddly enough, while most Germans are happy with the government, not even 20 percent of them think that politics will influence the future course of society. Papers like Switzerland's Weltwoche worry that Merkel is in danger of degenerating into a "media chancellor" like her predecessor Gerhard Schröder. The paper warns that rhetoric and good public relations won't be enough to substitute for hard-ball politics over the long haul. "The half-life of symbols and banners doesn't last forever. And then the revenge of those who were fooled follows." Other papers speculate that a serious crisis in Germany's social system or a foreign crisis like the one impending in Iran could be the decisive moment. Then, Merkel will have to prove her mettle or see her image deflate as Fischer predicted.

The left-of-center Süddeutsche Zeitung notes that Merkel's 100th day in the chancellery comes just as Germany releases its latest unemployment figures. For the second time since Merkel took office, that figure has surpassed the psychologically important 5 million mark. Nevertheless, the paper doesn't believe the latest figures will have a significant impact on the government. Indeed, the paper sees a silver lining for the chancellor -- there are 241,000 fewer jobless now than one year ago and it doesn't look like the labor market is going to get any worse this year. It could improve, but one can only count on about 1 percent annual growth for now. And that leaves politicians with three possibilities. "They can resign themselves to mass unemployment, which so many have already done in silence," the paper writes. "Or they can make dramatic appeals to business to solve the problem … But in the end the only real option for politicians is to act themselves, by improving the framework of the labor market." The paper is somewhat skeptical that Merkel will be forceful enough to really make the changes in the systems of bureaucracy and privilege. This would include changing the way work is distributed or lowering the non-wage costs of work which have been discussed since the days of her former boss, Helmut Kohl.

In a biting commentary, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes of the exaggerated need for harmony it sees in the nation at large. The grand coalition's agreement is "quite easy to maintain because the parties involved still haven’t really determined what it is they really want to fight for." The FAZ sees that this comfortable relationship was the result of elections in which Schröder was punished for liberal structural reforms and Merkel was equally punished for demanding liberal reforms that were too radical. "Stay put" then became the political lesson to both. This was the crucible which produced Merkel's "politics of small steps," and ended any notion of more fundamental reform. "The coalition is still profiting from the figure which the chancellor cut in her confident but unpretentious visits abroad as well as from her statesman-like distance to pettier domestic quarrels," the paper opines. "But the expectations so far have not been very high either abroad or at home. That will change if the Iran crisis escalates or even if the deferred conflict over health insurance intensifies. The laurels conferred on her government so early on will soon wilt. And then? A grand coalition which governs two-thirds of parliament cannot be content with 'little steps' in a country whose state of affairs was a reason for early elections."

The Financial Times Deutschland also writes with skepticism, "This unfamiliar noiselessness of government must be enjoyed with great caution. Here is not only evidence of pragmatism and reasonableness. Rather, above all there are the signs of the extraordinary power of this cartel of the big parties." The paper criticizes the decision not to raise the sales tax as a prime example of the kind of "lazy compromises that such a cartel can enter into."

The business daily Handelsblatt has written perhaps the most interesting editorial on the first 100 days of Merkel's government. It begins by reminding readers of what other statesmen have done with their first 100 days -- like Napoleon in 1815 on his victory march through Europe or Franklin D. Roosevelt and his first two dozen laws of the New Deal. By contrast, the paper describes the legislative record of Merkel's government as modest by any standard. Even straightforward matters like the massive consolidation of the budget which Merkel announced at the beginning have not been accomplished, nor can the Handelsblatt discern anything like a unique governmental "project." But then the paper makes a conclusion which indeed could be understood as the need for the political system to further lower expectations, "But here is a sign of the great strength of Angela Merkel as well, and the biggest break with her predecessor. The times of brilliant proposals, today a job reform and tomorrow the whole world seem to be past. In Berlin pragmatism governs and less show business and less reformist muscle-flexing." The paper goes on to point to the need for what it describes as the genteel demise of politics, " In her major speeches Merkel is persistent in setting the same accents as on the very first day of her government. In practice she avoids fruitless political fights. She remains reserved and at the same time, sets an example."