OPPOSITES DON"T COALESCE:

Foreign Policy First Testing Ground for Germany's Grand Coalition: Don't be fooled by the facade of harmony in Germany's new grand coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats. Angela Merkel has only been chancellor for one week but she is already heading into a struggle with her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for control over foreign policy. (Der Spiegel, 11/28/05)

[T]he SPD, on whose support Chancellor Merkel relies for power, remains proud of Schröder's vocal criticism of the US government over Iraq, a stance that led to a deep rift between Germany and the United States which Merkel wants to mend. Schröder's outright refusal to join the "coalition of the willing" was comforting to the center-left party at a time when he was asking it to accept deep cutbacks in welfare benefits.

Regarding policy towards the US, Steinmeier "has been given clear battle orders by the party," said one Social Democrat member of Merkel's cabinet. Relations with the United States are the main fault line in the foreign policy of her still fragile coalition, analysts say.

Merkel underlined her desire for better trans-Atlantic links by visiting NATO headquarters last Wednesday straight after she saw French President Jacques Chirac in Paris. She had backed President George W. Bush at the height of the diplomatic crisis preceding the Iraq war, writing in a guest commentary for the Washington Post in early 2003 that "Schröder doesn't speak for all Germans."

Merkel is also trying to change Germany's tune in Europe. During her visit to Paris, she said the new EU member states in central and eastern Europe would play an important role in her European policy -- a clear hint that she wants to ease Germany out of the "axis" with France and Russia that Schröder built up through close relations with Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Among the tangible measures Merkel is taking is a joint trip with Steinmeier later this week to Poland, where she is seeking to improve fragile relations with Warsaw.

She also wants warmer ties with Britain, which fell out with Schröder over the Iraq war and the European Union budget. Merkel has given clear signals in the past that her instincts are closer to the market-friendly ideas of Tony Blair than to the view of a strong welfare state shared by Schröder and Chirac.

As the French model and the Anglo-American are opposed, you have to choose between France and America.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 28, 2005 10:23 AM