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A New Style of Governing (November 22, 2006)

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The criticism that citizens, once again, aren't being sufficiently informed of the motives, principles, and aims of government policy is cautiously deduced from this perception. The three party chairs of the grand coalition agreed this past summer in Bayreuth to do things differently and better. The coalition government’s major positions were to be made clear so that leading politicians wouldn’t have to resort to nightly discussions of draft bills. Up to now, things haven’t changed all that much.

When conversation turns to the Union’s decline and the coalition’s poor image in public opinion polls, many point to the blurry picture that the grand coalition is presenting to the public. Above all, the kind of debate that took place on health-care is regarded as a sign of weakness. Within the Union, people point to the compromises that the party agreed to on the anti-discrimination act. At the moment, it seems as though North Rhine-Westphalia’s minister president Rüttgers, in alliance with Bavaria’s minister president Stoiber, has taken over the programmatic aspect of policies. Rüttgers’ efforts to enhance the CDU’s social-policy profile are not only motivated by tactical considerations pertaining to the next party congress. The indignant reactions from the SPD leadership illustrate the effects on the climate within the grand coalition. Should the ideas of the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU prevail, then part of the coalition’s political management will be outsourced – to the federal states.

Ms. Merkel survived the first year of her chancellorship without any personnel upheavals, if one leaves aside the falling out with FDP chair [Guido] Westerwelle. It is currently of no significance and could at most have an impact at a later date. Not a single minister was let go or stepped down of his or her own accord, and that can by no means be taken for granted: it happened three times in Schröder’s first year. The female SPD ministers who were already part of the cabinet in Schröder’s time are happier now. Deliberations under Ms. Merkel’s leadership follow a male-determined pecking order to a lesser degree, and no one is browbeaten in front of colleagues in sessions anymore, which used to be passed off as the chancellor “putting his foot down.” Ms. Merkel tries to demonstrate agreement among women in the Bundestag, too, by seeking out conversations with female colleagues in the cabinet, even those from less important ministries. Of course, the sessions are also less structured and people are starting to say that there is too much beating around the bush, like on Sunday in a cabinet session on policy on Europe when there was nothing to be decided.

The chancellor does not speak arrogantly or badly of others. Problems with defense minister [Franz Josef] Jung (CDU) because his public statements revealed different points of view? Problems with economics minister [Michael] Glos (CSU) because he chose the wrong moment to open a new debate that endangered peace in the coalition? Ms. Merkel agrees with the two ministers in principle. She wraps specific criticism in well-meaning advice. In other cases, she is less frank. She appears to have developed a trusting relationship with labor minister [Franz] Müntefering, which has negatively affected the vice-chancellor at times – within his own party. The chancellor even “had a beer” with SPD parliamentary faction chair [Peter] Struck, who was the loudest and most public critic of Ms. Merkel’s leadership qualities. Maybe they spoke about comparable problems. Since then, both of them have been able to praise what the coalition has accomplished thus far: including a rough blueprint for the health-care reform program, agreements on reforming the corporate tax, the passing of federalism reform, and the [parties’] commonalities in foreign policy. This Wednesday marks one year since Ms. Merkel was elected chancellor. She will elaborate on her policies in the current budgetary debate in the Bundestag.



Source: Günter Bannas, “Sie inszeniert sich nicht. Angela Merkels Stil” [“She Doesn’t Put on a Show. Angela Merkel’s Style”], Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 22, 2006, p. 3.

Translation: Allison Brown

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