Having proven herself on the international stage, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also strengthened her domestic profile Tuesday with a compromise on extending minimum wage coverage and a nursing care insurance reform.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly shown her ability to unite world leaders, most recently by reaching an agreement on fighting climate change at this month's G8 summit, but squabbling among members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their coalition partner, the Social Democrats, has hobbled the chancellor's domestic image. 

 

After taking over as the head of the grand coalition government in 2005, Merkel has had to work hard to find common ground between two parties that have been at loggerheads for the better part of 60 years.

 

But early on Tuesday, Merkel struck a deal on the minimum wage, an issue that has strained relations between the two parties in recent weeks. The deal will see minimum wage protections extended beyond construction workers and building cleaners to another 10 to 12 industrial sectors. Merkel also brokered an agreement on raising mandatory contributions to statutory nursing care, costs which are shared by workers and employers, by 0.25 percent as of July 2008 while lowering unemployment insurance payments by 0.3 percent to 3.9 percent beginning in January.