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Commentary:Europe's New 'Eiserne Madchen'Merkel poised to become new German Chancellorby Lowman S. Henry, CEO To American conservatives there has probably been no more beloved foreign leader in recent generations that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her partnership with President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s literally transformed the political culture of the entire world. Nobody since has quite lived up to the very high bar that Thatcher set. But now, all eyes are on the woman who within the next couple of weeks could become the first female Chancellor of Germany. Few Americans have heard of Angela Merkel who is widely expected to oust Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in next month's elections. The rise of Merkel has been nothing short of remarkable – and not just because she is a woman in Germany's male dominated political culture. If elected Merkel will also become the first person from the former East Germany to ascend to the Chancellorship. Further, the Protestant minister's daughter will ride into office as the candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a party with strong Catholic roots. She is divorced and has no children. It is no exaggeration to say that Merkel has made a career out of defying expectations and turning conventional wisdom on its ear. A physicist by training, Merkel was serving in parliament when she was plucked from relative obscurity by former Chancellor Helmut Kohl for a cabinet seat. Despite that, she was among the first to desert Kohl when he became embroiled in a scandal that ultimately help bring down his government. That burnished Merkel's reformer image and helped propel her up the leadership ranks of the CDU. She is poised to claim the Chancellor's office as a result of a string of unexpected political victories in recent months by her party at the state level. Back in February she put her prestige on the line in helping to win an upset for the CDU in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein. But, Schroeder was forced to call early elections after his party suffered a stinging rebuke in May in North Rhine-Westphalia. That win by the CDU was put in perspective by a young German lady I met in Washington , D.C. in June. I asked her why a state-level election would have such a national impact. Her response was to compare the CDU's win to Republicans beating Democrats in cities such as New York or San Francisco. "It was something you would never expect to see happen," she said. Voter rejection of the Schroeder regime is being propelled by a rapidly faltering German economy. More than five million Germans are currently unemployed. That translates into a national jobless rate of over 12%. The economy is further burdened by decades of social welfare policies which have resulted in 48% of the nation's budget going in one form or another to pay for social welfare programs. The next biggest expenditure is 14% of the budget to pay interest on Germany's staggering national debt. Merkel and the Christian Democrat Union have vowed to enact sweeping reform to address these problems. Schroeder's Social Democrat Party counters that she is a "market radical," but it appears the German electorate is coming to the realization that there is no escape from their current economic malaise unless major changes are made. From America's perspective, Merkel would be a welcome change from the Schroeder regime. Schroeder has often allied himself with French President Jacques Chirac against Bush Administration policies, most notably on the liberation of Iraq. Merkel has spoken out against Schroeder on this issue and argues for stronger relations with the United States. If Merkel is successful in winning next month's election, and in uniting Germany's famously fractious political parties behind her ideas, she could move a nation which by all rights should be the economic sparkplug of the European continent strongly in a free market direction. A lot has to happen of course, but Merkel-mania is beginning to take hold among conservatives in America. While Margaret Thatcher will always be foremost in our hearts, a new century is looking for a new "Iron Lady" and that new "Eiserne Madchen" may in fact be Angela Merkel.
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