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Merkel elected germany first woman chancellor

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Merkel elected Germany's first woman chancellor
Reuters

BERLIN - Angela Merkel was elected Germany's first woman chancellor on Tuesday in a parliamentary vote that ends months of uncertainty and ushers in a fragile new government with the task of reviving Europe's largest economy.

Merkel, leader of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), won 397 votes in the 614-seat Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, easily securing the majority she needed to become Germany's eighth postwar chancellor and the first to have grown up in the former communist east.

Her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder was the first to congratulate a smiling Merkel after parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert announced the result to a hushed chamber.

"Dear Dr Merkel, you are now the first ever elected female head of government in Germany. That is a strong signal for many women, and certainly for some men too," Lammert said to laughter.

Merkel and her cross-party cabinet of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) will be sworn in later on Tuesday, formally taking over from the SPD-Greens government that Schroeder has led for the past seven years.

Merkel's confirmation as chancellor comes two months after her conservatives narrowly beat Schroeder's party in a general election she had been expected to win easily.

The result left the 51-year-old pastor's daughter with no choice but to form a coalition with her long-time rivals. During tough month-long coalition negotiations, Merkel had to abandon her plans for a shake-up of the German social welfare system.

Her government is vowing to repair relations with Washington, strained by Schroeder's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. It has also promised to revive the economy, once Europe's motor but now one of the more sluggish in the 25-nation EU, and cut unemployment that hit postwar highs under Schroeder.

She must hope that the central plank of her coalition program -- an agreement to bring the budget deficit back within EU borrowing limits by 2007 through higher sales taxes -- will not hinder growth by cramping consumer spending.

NOT GOOD, NOT BAD

With 397 votes, Merkel won more support in parliament than any previous chancellor, but 51 of the 448 members of parliament from her coalition chose not to support her, leading some politicians to express disappointment.

"It's not a very good result, but also not a bad one either. I would have preferred if it had been 401, but it's a good start," said Thomas De Maiziere, who will be Merkel's Chancellery chief.

Merkel represents a generational change and a break in style from the flamboyant Schroeder, who favored Italian suits and fat cigars and seemed most at ease when in the media spotlight.

Her sober, low-key approach has been mocked in the German media, but some commentators say it is tailor-made for her new coalition, which bridges right and left and will require delicate management.

Like her political mentor, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel has been underestimated throughout her career. That helped her push aside rivals in her male-dominated, heavily Catholic CDU and may work to her advantage again.

Polls show a majority of Germans are convinced her unwieldy alliance -- the country's first "grand coalition" since the 1960s -- will not last a full four-year term.

But her cabinet is dominated by pragmatists, and the government's stability could also be helped by a strong sense within both rival camps that failure would prompt voters to abandon them in any early elections.

"Damned to succeed," was the headline of an editorial in top-selling German daily Bild.

(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum, Nicholas Antonovics and Karin Strohecker)


Copyright 2005 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures



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