MERKEL'S MOMENT

Today at 10:00 a.m. Germany's parliament voted Angela Merkel to become the country's first ever woman chancellor, as well as the country's first leader from former East Germany. At 2:00 p.m., she will be sworn in.

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung devotes space on pages 1, 2 and 3 to Merkel including a long piece taking a closer look at her leadership style. The last nine weeks, the paper points out, have been full of attempts to question her ability to lead. Yet by emerging as chancellor after those nine weeks, the paper argues, she has very definitely proven that ability ... The trained physicist is very good at recognizing and then dealing with the facts with which she is presented and doesn't dwell on what might have been.

Germany's over-the-top tabloid Bild on Tuesday lives up to its shrill reputation via its daily "Post von Wagner" column, a short piece written by crazed-looking columnist Franz Josef Wagner. His piece is directed at Merkel's husband -- well-respected physicist Joachim Sauer -- and wonders, among other absurdities, "how one hugs such a powerful woman." ... It fell to Konrad Adenauer to build the foundation of the republic, Willy Brandt improved relations with the Eastern Bloc, Helmut Schmidt guided the country through the terrorism if the RAF and Helmut Kohl reunited Germany. Merkel too could add her name to that prestigious list (a list from which Gerhard Schröder is missing) by bringing eastern and western Germany closer together ... "Merkel has the tenacity and the strength a chancellor needs to do what's necessary, even if it is difficult."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung says that "there is no optimism, much less joy, to be felt as the grand coalition takes over the government." That has to do with the two huge hurdles facing the coalition. The first is the need to balance the budget, "which would be easier if a majority of citizens saw it as a collective problem rather than as one solely of the country's politicians." The second hurdle is the mistrust within the coalition itself.

In the conservative daily Die Welt next to the spread is an editorial entitled "Merkel's Moment." She is not, the paper argues, to be envied for the task that she now faces. "The country is ill from problems that several governments caused, managed and ignored. The situation facing Merkel is less complicated than the detail-obsessed public debate makes it seem."

The financial daily Handelsblatt focuses on the new leadership style that Merkel will bring to Berlin. "For too long under Gerhard Schröder, the belief in miracles set the tone in Berlin. With Merkel, one can hope for solid competence that is based on reality" ... But in addition to being less flashy than Schröder, she is also very good at realpolitik. "Her political style in the recent power struggles has resembled that of a judo fighter: Her opponents -- most recently Edmund Stoiber -- have fallen by virtue of their own momentum."

The Financial Times Deutschland chooses to ignore Merkel preferring instead to focus on the grand coalition of which she is now the head. It points out that Merkel is making Spartan savings its advertising slogan. But if it is not accompanied by a larger, strategic plan, the overall success of Merkel's government is doubtful. "Questions of structure have remained taboo. Instead, the only goal seems to be squeezing as much money as possible out of the existing structures."

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