Merkel sworn in

Finally, the hand-off of the Chancellor position to Merkel occured today when she was voted by a decisive margin into the country's highest office, receiving 397 of the 611 valid parliamentary votes. She needed at least 308 to take office. Her own CDU party, its sister party the CSU, and coalition partner SPD together owned a total of 448 votes.



Although she is stepping into the history books today as the first female German Chancellor (and the first leader from the East), any honeymoon period, if there is one, is not likely to last long. She will lead an unwieldy coalition of the left and right whose main task will be getting the German economy moving again, and addressing a full slate of difficult decisions, many of which are not going to please the public.

One of her greatest challenges will be bringing the public around to the idea that change is needed to Germany to retain the high standard of living it has enjoyed for decades. For a German public highly resistant to change, this will continue to be a bitter pill to swallow.

As for Schröder, he is said to be retiring to his Berlin law practice and to write a book of his memoirs. Isn’t that what all ex-politicians do?