Rising Star In German Politics

In recent polls German Chancellor Schroeder has lost signifigant ground and looks to be defeated in general elections by opposition leader Angela Merkel. Ms Merkel is a conservative christian and has been likened to Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Ms. Merkel is a likely contender to become the first female Chancellor in German history.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The regional election success for the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in North Rhine-Westphalia could be a springboard for party leader Angela Merkel.

Ms Merkel is likely to be the candidate to challenge German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Germany's next general election, which means she may have a good chance of becoming the country's first female chancellor.

Angela Merkel is a fascinating lady. She is a conservative but supports some liberal efforts like gay marriage and abortion. She has PhD in Physics and was raised in communist East Germany.

Is this the future of German politics? A shift away from the socialist green parties and Schroeders Social Democrats who have held power for a long time?

Originally posted by looking4truth
Angela Merkel is a fascinating lady. She is a conservative but supports some liberal efforts like gay marriage and abortion.

Thats not unusual in german politics. The only thing the two wings of the conservative party alliance (CSU [Christian-Social Union] from Bavaria and CDU [Christian-Democratic Union] for the rest of Germany) somewhat agree on is their stance on economic politics.

Hamburgs conservative mayor (thus the leader of the city state as well) Ole von Beust is openly homosexual (although he was outed by a political enemy - needless to say that man ended his carreer with that). Berlin has a gay mayor too, Klaus Wowereit, although hes from the SPD.

Claudia Merkel is in a rather lucky position. The economy is still not getting on its feet, people are somewhat afraid of the changes in the EU, the opening to the east in particular (this has much more impact on Germany than any other old member of the EU, since Germany is THE transit country with its central position and borders to no less than nine other countries). People blame their insecurity and economic fears on the current government (which is partly justified).

Merkel can also score by that she overwhelmed the male aspirants in the past months. In the last election, she was forced to let another conservative candidate run against Schröder, and that one failed (partly because of his rather hardline views. In this election, Merkel can produce herself as the golden medium of political discrepancies, opposing Schröders line but also defeating the more right-wing parts of her party. Another helpful thing could be that many women feel obliged to vote for her, obviously to finally harvest the fruits of decades-long emancipation.

[edit on 28-6-2005 by Lonestar24]

This really doesn't sound much different than U.S. politics. Merkel sounds an awful lot like members of the old Republican guard, before the NeoCons were invited to the party.

The CDU/CSU has more things everybody agrees on, as example:

immigration politics, they want to stop more immigration, and focus on higher birth rates (doing familiy policy reforms similar to the ones in france and sweden),
they think that nuclear energy is pretty important, while red-green wants to abolish the usage of nuclear energy in germany.
et cetera.

on most stuff the majority agrees, but of course everybody is an individual and so everywhere there is one or two points a person doesnt agree with, for merkel its abortion and "registreded gay partnerships"
the first is there since decades, the conservatives agree mostly, but some think it should be harder to abort, and "registred gay partnerships" are also legal since a few years, not she, nor her party does agree that there should be a real "gay marriage",

I think people who speak here know #,
they speak about stuff they dont know, and give other people who want to inform themselfes about that topic a false impression, you seem to equal CDU/CSU with the Republicans, but you cant equal german partys with american ones, no german party is that unsocial like Republicans and Democrats are, besides of the Green party, no german party is that extreme pro immigration, like republicans or democrats, no german party is that much .... etc. etc.