By Helen Maguire and Mike Swanson Oct 28, 2009, 10:36 GMT
Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel began her second term at the helm of Europe's largest nation on Wednesday amid efforts by her conservative coalition to get the economy back on track.
The economy formed the lynchpin of election pledges made by Merkel, who argued that the need to encourage growth in the wake of the economic crisis aligned her Christian Democrats (CDU) with the liberal agenda of her new partner, the Free Democrats (FDP)
Unostentatious in her sensible trouser suits and no-nonsense fringe, Merkel, 55, is Germany's most popular politician and among the world's most powerful woman, according to the US magazine Forbes.
Her popularity stems from her quiet determination to get on with the job, virtues she displayed throughout three weeks of tough coalition talks with the FDP.
'This humble appearance, and the fact that she doesn't stage things, that is her actual staging,' said Gerd Langguth, a political scientist and biographer of Merkel.
The daughter of a protestant pastor, Merkel was born near Hamburg in 1954, and moved to East Germany with her family at a time when people were fleeing in the opposite direction.
A trained physicist, Merkel did not enter politics until the age of 35, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Within the CDU she quickly came to the attention of then-chancellor Helmut Kohl.
The remarried, childless protestant from former East Germany stood out against the CDU's conservative, Catholic image of a party dominated by men and firmly rooted in Germany's west.
Nevertheless, 'Kohl's girl' first became minister for women and youth, then inherited the environment brief. In 2000 she was elected as the first female leader of the CDU.
While Merkel learned her political skills under Kohl, she does not share his sense of historical imperative, Langguth said.
'She is a non-ideological, pragmatic problem solver,' Langguth said.
What many see as Merkel's pragmatism can also be considered opportunist, others say.
Voted in on a tax-cutting agenda, Merkel's government advisors immediately warned that empty state coffers left little room for manoeuvre as coalition talks began with the FDP.
She used this argument to get the Free Democrats to drop their demands for 35 billion euros (52 billion dollars) in tax cuts, eventually getting them to agree to a compromise of 24 billion euros.
Merkel herself remained quiet throughout the three weeks of coalition talks, which got off to a less-than-ideal start as the CDU and FDP fought hard to find common ground.
The FDP's pro-business leanings counter some of Merkel's social credentials, visible in her pro-family stance and salary top-ups for employees working reduced hours during the economic crisis.
Merkel's Christian Democrats won the greatest share of the vote in the September 27 general election with 33.8 per cent - but it was still the party's worst result since 1949.
Nevertheless, this was enough for Merkel to end the CDU's awkward 'grand coalition' with the Social Democrats (SPD) and form a new centre-right government with the FDP, led by Guido Westerwelle.
Two successive quarters of economic growth, and encouraging unemployment figures, allowed Merkel to maintain that the previous government has fended off the worst of the economic crisis.
But she warned her party this week that the crisis was not yet over and the new coalition needed to work hard to overcome it.
'This is why we have decided to follow a path that focuses entirely on growth,' she said, adding that this justified an increase in public debt, despite the nation's parlous finances.
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