THE TELEGRAPH: Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has the gift of making Germany seem routine, and worthy of little apprehension
When the Berlin Wall came down, Margaret Thatcher was not the only person who worried that Germany might be about to become too interesting again. The reunited Germany, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall this week, is a very powerful country, the most powerful in Europe. Yet under the leadership of Angela Merkel, the scientist from the East, it arouses very little apprehension.
This week, Mrs Merkel, who successfully regained the office of Chancellor in recent elections, chose not to dwell on the fall of communist eastern Europe and the events that led to a reunified Germany. Instead of grandstanding and gladhanding she warned instead in a big speech that the country's economic problems would "get bigger before they get better". She added that the growing budget deficit would not prevent the government from pressing ahead with cuts in income tax in an effort to stimulate growth.
The focus on economics and tax cuts highlighted the qualities of Europe's latest superstar woman politician: she is a ruthless power player who does what is needed, yet she conveys an impression of magnified ordinariness, right down to the determination to continue doing her own shopping and to queue in her local supermarket.
Nobody can read Mrs Merkel's mind, a talent she developed while growing up in East Germany as the daughter of a Lutheran pastor. To be allowed by the regime to build a successful career as a scientist, without actually joining the ruling Party of Socialist Unity (though she was active in its youth wing), required a prodigious capacity to veil her own opinions, to seem unthreatening and to concentrate in a pragmatic way on the task in hand.
Mrs Merkel has an excellent sense of humour and often smiles, but people no more know what lies behind her smile than what lies behind the Mona Lisa's. >>> Andrew Gimson | Friday, November 13, 2009
