Is Germany Ready for a Woman Chancellor?

No puedo dejar de recomendar el artículo aparecido hoy en el Spiegel Online (versión inglesa) de Jody K. Biehl .

Indispensable para quien esté interesado en saber quién es Angela Merkel y cómo será su política si se convierte en Canciller alemán. El «corazón de Europa» recobraría el pulso en muchas cuestiones:

For once in Germany, things are happening faster — rather than slower — than expected. Schroeder cut the time to the next federal election from sixteen months to just four months. The pace has Germans tingling. And speculating.

The question is, are Germans really ready to elect a woman as chancellor? And let’s face it, Merkel is not even an attractive woman. She’s a stubby frump with about as much glamour and half the charm of a doormouse. In a politically correct world, this wouldn’t matter. But sadly — or simply realistically — in 2005, it still holds sway. Plus, Merkel is from the former East Germany — a woman who grew up under the Communist Party behind the Iron Curtain. When the Wall fell 16 years ago, she rapidly aligned herself with the political right, cozied up to then Chancellor Helmut Kohl and quickly became his darling «little girl.» That special relationship didn’t stop her from turning her back on him when he got into trouble over a nasty slush-fund scandal in late 1997. Her political integrity — or was it merely her survival instinct to move away from a dying beast? — earned her points with voters and helped her fill the leadership vacuum in the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) after Kohl’s downfall.

Sin duda, Merkel es una de los políticos más íntegros que hoy puede presentar la «escena» berlinesa.

But now what? Newspapers portray her as the crown princess — a woman who needs do no more than appear different from the increasingly unpopular party of Gerhard Schroeder in order to win. For his part, Gerhard Schroeder — a skilled political pugilist — is trying to paint Merkel as Margaret Thatcher reincarnate. In the Schroeder scenario, Maggie II (aka Angie I) would be a cold-blooded tyrant, who would push through even tougher reforms than Gerd’s socially just, worker-friendly Social Democrats. Under Merkel, says the SPD press machine, Germany would become «a conservative land, where the only people who would have a social net to protect them will be those who can afford one.»

Claro, los chicos del SPD metiendo miedo desde el primer momento. Es lo del dobermann.

If Merkel were to win, her foreign policy choices would be a tad clearer than her domestic agenda, starting with more George W. Bush and probably significantly less Vladimir Putin than in the Schroeder era. Schroeder has made cozying up to his Russian presidential pal a central part of his plan to return Germany to its status as a major world player. Close relations with Moscow would make Germany a strategic negotiating ally. Merkel, on the other hand, has always courted relations with the White House. And unlike Schroeder — who has been Turkey’s greatest cheerleader in its quest for EU membership — Merkel is unabashedly opposed to the Muslim nation’s entry.

Con lo cual la soledad de Zapatero en política internacional sólo encontraría consuelo en Fidel y Chavez. Pues que bien!

Opinion polls show that only 25 percent of the public can imagine another round of SPD-Green rule, while 43 percent are ready to vote for the CDU. But, if the public were voting for candidates — not parties — 42 percent say they would pick Schroeder, while only 34 percent would vote for Merkel.

Lo cual demuestra que no sólo los españoles votan «cautivos del talante», que es lo que le sobra a Schröder también, a falta de capacidad de gestión.

No dejen de leer el artículo entero.