Merkel Supports Eurozone 'Red Card'
BBC: Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel says she wants the eurozone to be able to exclude one of its members in future if that is necessary to avert a crisis.

Mrs Merkel told the German Bundestag (parliament) that existing EU rules were not strong enough to deal with the current crisis triggered by Greece.

Exclusion from the 16-nation eurozone would be a "last resort", she said.

Germany, seen as the driving force of the euro system, is reluctant to bail out Greece's debt-laden economy.

But Mrs Merkel said no eurozone country would be left on its own to deal with the current crisis. Greece's budget deficit - four times higher than EU rules allow - has raised fears of possible contagion in the eurozone. >>> | Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Peres at Bundestag: Never Again
YNET NEWS: In historic speech to German parliament on International Holocaust Day, Israeli president addresses dangers of past and future, focusing on Iranian nuclear program. ' No more ignoring blood-thirsty dictators hiding behind masks of demagogy and voicing slogans of murder,' he says, stressing that 'peace is needed to prevent another Holocaust'

President Shimon Peres delivered a historic speech to members of the German parliament in Berlin on Wednesday afternoon on the occasion of International Holocaust Day, 65 years after the end of World War II.

"No more ignoring blood-thirsty dictators hiding behind masks of demagogy and voicing slogans of murder. They are a threat to the entire world," Peres stressed.

The German parliament heard a translation of the speech, which was carried out in Hebrew. Peres said the Kadish prayer in honor of the Holocaust victims, which include his grandparents, who were burned alive in their town's synagogue.

"In the State of Israel and across the world, Holocaust survivors are slowly retiring from the world of the living. Their number is reduced every day. At the same time, those who were involved in the most despicable work on earth – genocide – are still living on German soil. Please do all you can to bring them to justice," Peres said.

The president referred to his memories from his hometown of Belarus when it was conquered by the Nazis, as well as to his grandfather's image, which has left a great mark on him to this very day. He went on to speak about the establishment of the State of Israel, saying that if the "delay in its establishment" had been prevented, the Holocaust could have been prevented as well.

"As an Israeli, I lament the tragic delay in the establishment of the Jewish state, which left my people without a haven of rest. I cannot accept the loss of a million and a half children – the biggest human and creative potential which could have changed Israel's fate. I am proud about Israel's revival, which is the moral and historic response to the attempt to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth," the president said.

Peres went on to direct his words at Iran. "We are now left with the crucial lesson: Never again. No more racist doctrine, no more feelings of superiority, no more so-called divine authority to incite, murder, break the law, deny God and the Shoah." >>> Roni Sofer | Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Spiegel Video anschauen: Gedenken an Holocaust-Opfer: Israels Präsident Peres im Bundestag

Bundestagswahl: Kanzlerin von Guidos Gnaden
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Angela Merkel hat für die Union die Kanzlerschaft gerettet, doch der eindeutige Sieger dieser Bundestagswahl heißt Guido Westerwelle. Die FDP bekommt sogar deutlich mehr Mandate als die CSU - für die Kanzlerin wird das Regieren dadurch nicht einfacher.

Berlin - Angela Merkel strahlt. Ein, zweimal wackelt sie mit dem Kopf, wippt kurz auf den Zehenspitzen, so, als wolle sie vor Freude am liebsten einen kleinen Hüpfer machen. Im roten Blazer steht sie um kurz nach 19 Uhr auf der Bühne des Konrad-Adenauer-Hauses. Eben noch war auf den Leinwänden SPD-Spitzenkandidat Frank-Walter Steinmeier zu sehen, wie er den Genossen die bittere Schlappe zu erklären versuchte, und die Menge in der CDU-Zentrale lachte spöttisch über die entsetzten Gesichter im Willy-Brandt-Haus. Nun schallt es "Angie, Angie" durch das voll besetzte Foyer. Mehrfach muss die CDU-Chefin ansetzen, um sich Gehör zu verschaffen. "Nicht nur Ihr und Sie sind heute Abend glücklich - ich bin es auch. Wir haben etwas Tolles geschafft."

Es reicht, es reicht für Schwarz-Gelb, das sagen die Wahlforscher in ihren Hochrechnungen übereinstimmend voraus. Es reicht sogar für eine stabile Mehrheit - "und das ist gut", freut sich Merkel. Es reicht allerdings nicht, weil Angela Merkel und Horst Seehofer ihre Union endlich wieder an die 40 Prozentmarke herangeführt hätten. Im Gegenteil: CDU und CSU erreichen mit gerade einmal 33,8 Prozent nicht einmal das Niveau von vor vier Jahren. Damit fährt Merkel das schlechteste Ergebnis für die Union bei einer Bundestagswahl seit der Wahl 1949 ein. Die CSU erleidet für ihre Verhältnisse gar ein Desaster: Bei 42,6 Prozent liegen die Christsozialen in Bayern.

Es reicht also vor allem für Schwarz-Gelb, weil die FDP so stark ist. 14,6 Prozent holen die Liberalen. Guido Westerwelle ist der eigentliche große Sieger dieser Wahl, darum überlässt ihm Merkel am Abend sogar den letzten Auftritt in der Reihe der TV-Liveschaltungen.

Westerwelle nimmt seinen Lebenspartner mit


Um 19.11 betritt der FDP-Chef dann das Foyer in den "Römischen Höfen" in Berlin. Die Anhänger rufen "Guido, Guido", irgendwann singen sie wie im Fußballstadion "So sehen Sieger aus, Schalalala". Westerwelle steht auf dem Podest mit dem Führungspersonal seiner Partei, plötzlich umarmt ihn sein Lebenspartner Michael Mronz. Westerwelle strahlt in die Kameras, es ist der Augenblick, auf den er hingearbeitet hat - die FDP ist wieder zurück an der Macht, nach elf Jahren in der Opposition. Neben ihm steht Hans Dietrich Genscher, der Ex-Außenminister und FDP-Ehrenvorsitzende, er wirkt fast ein wenig entrückt. Genscher, der die sozial-liberale und schwarz-gelbe Koalition in seiner Zeit mitgeprägt hat, hat Wahlkampf für den FDP-Chef gemacht. Genscher hat ihm im Präsidium an diesem Abend noch vor der ersten Hochrechnung gedankt: Der Erfolg sei auch ein Verdienst Westerwelles als Person. >>> Von Severin Weiland und Philipp Wittrock | Sonntag, 27. September 2009

Spiegel TV Video anschauen: Wahlerfolg für Angela Merkel und Guido Westerwelle >>>

Mandate for Change in Germany: Merkel's Center-Right Coalition Wins, Opening Door to Tax Cuts and Labor Revamp
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BERLIN -- A center-right alliance led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set for victory in Germany's national elections on Sunday, opening the door to modest tax cuts and labor-market changes that could help strengthen the fragile recovery in Germany's crisis-battered economy.

Ms. Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union and its pro-business ally, the Free Democratic Party, were set to win a small majority in Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, according to early results. The CDU, its Bavarian conservative sister-party, the Christian Social Union, and the FDP won 48.4% of the national vote on Sunday, according to projections by state broadcaster ARD.

"For corporate Germany, this is a good signal," said Thorsten Polleit, economist at Barclays Capital in Frankfurt. "The FDP, which will feel very confident now, and much of the CDU will want to bring down government spending in order to cut income taxes."

The parties are expected to form a new national government quickly, replacing the fractious bipartisan coalition between Ms. Merkel's CDU and the left-leaning Social Democratic Party that has ruled Germany since 2005.

For the U.S. and other German allies, the election result will bring continuity in German foreign policy, including on Afghanistan, where the FDP is expected to continue to support German troops' presence, while calling for an exit strategy in the medium term. Unlike the SPD, which has had a sometimes difficult relationship with the U.S., the FDP has long been a staunch proponent of Germany's trans-Atlantic partnership.

President Barack Obama called Ms. Merkel on Sunday to offer his congratulations, the White House said in a statement, adding: "The President and Chancellor Merkel agreed that with the election of a strong German government, our cooperation will further strengthen and deepen."

Ms. Merkel, a 55-year-old physicist who is Germany's first female chancellor and its first leader to grow up in the former East Germany, told her cheering supporters in Berlin Sunday night she wants to be "a chancellor for all Germans," an attempt to reassure voters that she would temper market-oriented changes with concern for social harmony. Ms. Merkel said that she would govern for "the workers as well as for the entrepreneurs." >>> Marcus Walker | Monday, September 28, 2009

Merkel Wins German Election, Has Majority for Center-Right Government
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: German voters re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and have enabled her to form a coalition with her preferred partner, the Free Democrat Party, according to TV projections based on exit polls. The Social Democrats slumped to their worst result since World War II and will go into the opposition.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a second term in Sunday's federal election and will be able to form a government with the pro-business Free Democrat Party, ditching the center-left Social Democrats with whom she has ruled since 2005 in an uneasy coalition, reliable TV projections of the result showed.

The projections show she will have a comfortable center-right majority in the Bundestag lower house of parliament with an estimated 323 seats, 15 more than the absolute majority of 308 seats, according to a projection broadcast on ZDF television.


According to the ZDF projection, Merkel's conservatives won 33.8 percent, down 1.4 points from the 2005 result of 35.2 percent, while SPD support fell to a record low of 23.0 percent, down 11.2 points from 34.2 percent.

"I am happy that we have achieved a great thing, to get a stable majority in the new government made up of conservatives and the FDP," a beaming Merkel told supporters at the headquarters of her Christian Democrat Union party in Berlin.

"I want to be the chancellor of all Germans to enable our country to do better and come out of this crisis," she said, smiling coyly as supporters chanted "Angie, Angie!” >>> cro – with wire reports | Sunday, September 27, 2009

FACTBOX: German Free Democrat Leader Guido Westerwelle
REUTERS: BERLIN - Guido Westerwelle is head of Germany's business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), with whom Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to form a government after Sunday's election.

He is widely expected to become foreign minister. >>> Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Dominic Evans | Sunday, September 27, 2009