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Germany has 1st female chancellor nominee
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-31 09:54
Germany's conservative opposition on Monday nominated Angela Merkel, a former
chemistry researcher, as its challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Merkel, 50, who grew up in East Germany, was the expected candidate to
challenge Schroeder after the chancellor called for national elections to be
advanced by a year following a shattering state election defeat for his party a
week ago.
A protege of conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel is the first female
candidate for the country's leadership and — if she wins in the September
elections — would be the country's first female chancellor.
Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union opposition party, launched
her election bid with a promise to tackle Germany's 12 percent jobless rate by
giving companies more flexibility in firing people and setting hours — but
without dismantling the traditional welfare state.
German opposition leader Angela Merkel of the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) smiles following a a party leaders
meeting in Berlin May 30, 2005. Germany's opposition chiefs selected
Christian Democrat leader Angela Merkel on Monday to challenge Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder at an early election that might make her the country's
first woman leader. [Reuters] | She said the regulation-clogged economy had to be "faster, more flexible and
better" and advocated loosening Germany's strict rules on layoffs and working
hours. But Merkel was quick to challenge the idea that she would dismantle the
social safety net.
"Jobs need growth and growth needs freedom — freedom and competition," she
said. "That's the way we will create more solidarity and more justice in our
country."
Schroeder has made limited attempts to cut back on business burdens, slightly
loosening rules on firing and cutting long-term jobless pay in an attempt to
push people to take jobs, but he has faced resistance in his own party.
Merkel also has spoken out against Schroeder's strident criticism of U.S.
policy on Iraq and says good relations with Washington should be a "fundamental
element" in German policy.
Polls have shown a strong lead for Merkel's conservatives over Schroeder's
Social Democrats, and a survey last week showed Schroeder losing his edge in
personal popularity over Merkel.
Merkel, who is on her second marriage and has no children, was born in
Hamburg in West Germany, but her Protestant minister father moved the family to
Templin in the east when she was 3. She began a scientific career as a
researcher in quantum chemistry at an East German scientific institute, entering
politics at age 35 when she joined a pro-democracy group.
After the Berlin Wall fell, Merkel became a spokeswoman for East Germany's
first and only democratically elected leader, Lothar de Maiziere. She joined the
Christian Democrats in August 1990 and was elected to parliament later that
year. In 1991, Kohl appointed her minister for women.
After the right lost power in 1998 and a slush fund scandal tainted Kohl, she
became party chairwoman.
Though the left has attempted to label her "Maggie Merkel," she's hardly a
German version of Margaret Thatcher, who shook up British capitalism by
attacking trade unions in the 1970s and 80s.
"She will reformulate the social market economy for the CDU," said Ingrid
Reichart-Dreyer, a political science professor at the Free University of Berlin.
"She has set the tone — she will be there for people. She is socially oriented,
but also for performance and competition."
Under Schroeder, Germany struggled with three years of near-zero growth,
which ended with a modest recovery last year. But it was not enough to cut the
unemployment rate.
Many economists and business leaders blame rigid regulations on hiring and
firing, which scare businesses off adding people when times are good for fear
they cannot trim payrolls in a downturn. Also blamed are heavy payroll taxes to
pay for health and old-age care and pensions.
High labor costs have pushed companies to move many jobs to new members of
the European Union such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia where wages are lower.
Merkel warned Germany cannot hide from the global economy — even though it is
not about to cut costs to the same level.
"Globalization is the setting in which our values of democracy and the social
market must be insisted on and defended," she said. "We cannot participate in
the competition with Eastern Europe for the lowest salaries and we don't want
to."
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