Assured Merkel faces up to Germany's problems

By Rohan Minogue Nov 30, 2005, 16:53 GMT

Berlin - A confident Angela Merkel presented the programme of her broad-based coalition to parliament in Berlin Wednesday as the first woman chancellor in the history of Germany.

Merkel was assured of support from across the political spectrum when she began her speech by saying that Germany would not give in to the terrorists holding a German woman hostage in Iraq.

'We are not open to blackmail,' Merkel told the Bundestag.

'We cannot relent in the fight against international terrorism... It targets our entire value system ... If we were to surrender these values we would surrender ourselves.'

Those values were clearly represented by the courage of Susanne Osthoff, a 43-year-old archaeologist turned aid worker who had refused to leave Iraq despite threats and is now paying the price for her idealism.

Merkel appealed to the courage of Germans in general, urging the country to move away from the welfare state that had brought security but was stifling the economy.

'Let us dare to allow greater freedom, let us release the brakes on growth,' she said, as she outlined her dreams of a hi-tech future based on investment in education, research and development.

As head of an unusual government that combines the traditional foes of German politics, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, Merkel sought consensus in her address.

The 51-year-old Christian Democrat went out of her way to praise her Social Democrat predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, who had fought a bitter election campaign against her and tried even after the election to sabotage her bid for the chancellery.

But she insisted she would not enter into 'lazy compromise' when it came to reforming social benefits.

While promising to help the weak, she hit out at welfare scroungers.

'It is right when the weak are helped. It is not right when when the strong disguise themselves as weak with the aim of abusing the community,' she said.

Merkel pledged her government would support the entrepreneurial middle class with cuts to company taxes and bureaucracy.

And her religious background showed through - she is the daughter of a Lutheran pastor - when she committed herself to policies that would help young Germans found families.

Merkel also made clear that her government would not tolerate the so-called 'honour killings' and forced marriages to be found among some immigrant communities.

She committed Germany to the role of honest broker on behalf of the less powerful member states of the European Union, reaffirming positions staked out during her lightning tour of European capitals immediately after taking office last week.

In her closing address, the new chancellor called on Germans to take a positive can-do attitude and to look out for the possible, rather than highlight the difficulties.

'Let's surprise ourselves with what is possible. Let's surprise ourselves with what we are capable of,' she said.