The chancellor's end is near

It took three rounds of voting to elect Germany's new federal president and not all the voters within the ruling coalition voted for him. A debacle for Chancellor Angela Merkel, writes the left-liberal daily La Repubblica, speculating that she may face the same end as her predecessor Gerhard Schröder: "The humiliating  vote of no confidence of dozens of voters of the centre-right in the presidential elections has left the most important country in Europe looking like a place of instability and political weakness. The 'most powerful woman in the world' with sensational poll ratings is only a memory. The coalition must now prove that it intends to stop quarrelling. The last time there was a political climate of this kind was at the end of the Schröder era, when the 'German Tony Blair' lost support within his own party over controversial reforms - and ultimately lost the elections he himself had wanted as well. Now only a first-class performance by the German economy will be able to save 'Angie.'"

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Elections, » Germany
All available articles from » Andrea Tarquini

» To the complete press review of Friday, July 2, 2010