With summer break having arrived, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat down with the press on Wednesday. Her government, she insisted, was still on the right track. With her personal approval rates soaring, one can forgive her optimism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel answered the questions of the press on Wednesday. It was as if the months of political bickering between the Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats never happened. Forget about the only recently ended quarrel over minimum wage. Ignore the recent flare up over nuclear energy. And complaints about the CDU not allowing their coalition partners from the SPD to take any credit? Not important. On Wednesday, at her traditional press conference just before the government goes on summer break next week, Merkel insisted that her cabinet cooperated well. "As for how we work together," she said, "I think we do so very, very well; the various ministers with their different profiles and possibilities -- whether or not they come from the Union (eds: CDU plus the Christian Social Union) or the SPD -- all have the possibility to take their part of the credit." But even as Merkel ran down a list of her government's accomplishments this year and pointed to the challenges remaining ahead, she also had a message for her coalition: With general elections still well over a year away, it is far too early to begin campaigning. "After the summer break, we need to continue working," she said. "There will be plenty of time for campaigning, but not in the coming months."
With summer break having arrived, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat down with the press on Wednesday. Her government, she insisted, was still on the right track. With her personal approval rates soaring, one can forgive her optimism.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel answered the questions of the press on Wednesday. It was as if the months of political bickering between the Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats never happened. Forget about the only recently ended quarrel over minimum wage. Ignore the recent flare up over nuclear energy. And complaints about the CDU not allowing their coalition partners from the SPD to take any credit? Not important.
On Wednesday, at her traditional press conference just before the government goes on summer break next week, Merkel insisted that her cabinet cooperated well. "As for how we work together," she said, "I think we do so very, very well; the various ministers with their different profiles and possibilities -- whether or not they come from the Union (eds: CDU plus the Christian Social Union) or the SPD -- all have the possibility to take their part of the credit."
But even as Merkel ran down a list of her government's accomplishments this year and pointed to the challenges remaining ahead, she also had a message for her coalition: With general elections still well over a year away, it is far too early to begin campaigning. "After the summer break, we need to continue working," she said. "There will be plenty of time for campaigning, but not in the coming months."
The World from Berlin: 'Merkel Has No Grand Plans' - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
The center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "Of course one shouldn't be naïve. Merkel has one goal above all others: She wants to remain in power. But contrary to the SPD leadership, she is convinced that she can only do that by exerting a credible amount of effort instead of constantly complaining about her coalition partners -- like Kurt Beck does.... Only when the SPD leadership is successful in creating a different image of itself will people begin returning to them." "Of course, Merkel doesn't have any grand plans and she doesn't develop any far-reaching visions. She doesn't move people with her ideas. But she scores political points anyway. Her trump is called pragmatism. The SPD has to realize, as painful as it may be, that Merkel's method plays best to the public."
The center-left daily Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"Of course one shouldn't be naïve. Merkel has one goal above all others: She wants to remain in power. But contrary to the SPD leadership, she is convinced that she can only do that by exerting a credible amount of effort instead of constantly complaining about her coalition partners -- like Kurt Beck does.... Only when the SPD leadership is successful in creating a different image of itself will people begin returning to them."
"Of course, Merkel doesn't have any grand plans and she doesn't develop any far-reaching visions. She doesn't move people with her ideas. But she scores political points anyway. Her trump is called pragmatism. The SPD has to realize, as painful as it may be, that Merkel's method plays best to the public."
Gaaaaah!!! And Süddeutsche is supposed to be center-left. What they describe is nothing but what I described here on ET time and again: Merkel walking in Kohl's footsteps. The recipe is: do nothing in terms of real reforms, let your opponents destroy themselves, and use surrogates for the nasty jobs while you yourself should radiate an above-the-daily-squabbles image (godfather of the nation in Kohl's case, what for Merkel - godmother?). And SZ fell for it.
How did Volker Pispers say it? A man walks around a block, walking its four sides, and after every circle, steps into the same dog-shit at one corner - and wonders why it happened to him again. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
