TAKES ONE...:

German 'chancellor-in-waiting' was award-winning Communist (Tony Paterson, 29/05/2005, Sunday Telegraph)

Angela Merkel, the woman fêted as Germany's chancellor-in-waiting, was an award-winning Communist in her youth whom the Stasi secret police tried to recruit as an agent.

Details of her upbringing in East Germany, which emerged last week, explain why Mrs Merkel, 50, is viewed with suspicion by hardline members of her traditionally Catholic party, the Christian Democrats, whose heartlands are in the west.

Tomorrow, however, she is expected to win the party nomination to stand against the chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in the general election this autumn. While even her supporters concede that she lacks charisma, inspiring respect rather than affection, Mrs Merkel led the Christian Democrats to a stunning victory in recent state polls in North Rhine Westphalia - forcing Mr Schröder to bring the election forward by a year.

Her dour childhood as a reluctant Communist sheds new light on why, unlike Mr Schröder, Mrs Merkel backed the US-led invasion of Iraq. "I know what it is when you don't have freedom," she said recently. "In the West, freedom is taken for granted. Fighting for it is not as necessary as it was for us."