Merkel shines on world stage

Nobody who's followed Angela Merkel's rapid rise in German politics can quite believe the chancellor's splash debut on the international stage.

"I'm surprised," says Josef Joffe, transatlantic expert and editor of the respected weekly Die Zeit. "She had no experience in foreign policy, nor has she shown much interest in it in the past."

Since she was sworn in last November, Ms. Merkel has shown herself to be an unfettered negotiator in Paris and Brussels, and an independent-minded partner of Russian president Vladimir Putin. She's talked freedom with President Bush in the White House and gotten chummy with Bono in Davos. And in Jerusalem this week, she talked tough for the European Union, demanding Hamas recognize Israel so that the Palestinian Authority might continue to receive EU aid.

For someone elected on promises to fix domestic problems like Germany's economy, Merkel has cut an impressive figure on the world stage. Editorialists, analysts, and even opposition politicians have lauded her cool, pragmatic approach.

"Angela Merkel seems to me to have changed since becoming chancellor," observes Karen Donfried, senior director for policy programs at the German Marshall Fund in Washington. "She is much more secure and self-confident."

Even more apparent, however, is the new direction Merkel has set for Germany's foreign policy. No more winter sleigh rides with Putin, as the former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder once favored, or emphatic bear hugs with French President Jacques Chirac.

"She is returning to the classical balances of German foreign policy. Hence closer to the US than Schröder, and more distance toward Russia and France," says Mr. Joffe. "She is restoring the continuities Schröder had abandoned."

As she does, she's making use of the political tools that have helped the impressive rise of this former physicist through German politics. Her flexibility and cool-headedness were on display in early December, as she helped bridge the gap between Britain and France in reaching an agreement on the EU's budget for 2007-2012.

Diplomats said Merkel worked behind the scenes to reach a resolution, which shook an extra 100 million euros free for Poland but meant Germany would have to contribute more to the EU budget than in the past. Merkel nevertheless won praise both among her European counterparts and at home.

"The Germans didn't come back from Brussels playing the victors," wrote Günther Nonnenmacher, one of the publishers of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "Rather, Ms. Merkel was herself praised for her negotiating talent - in seldom-seen European unanimity."

Page: 1 | 2