Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany’s current chancellor, is a unique world leader.According to a prominent German Translation worker, she was raised in communist East Germany. She is also the first woman chancellor of Germany and the youngest incumbent to be in her position. Initially her initiatives were stalled due to opposition among her socialist coalition team, but she was later able to gain more power by building up her own conservative coalition. As chancellor of Europe’s major economic power, Chancellor Angela Merkel now has strong support of party members and voters alike.
Growing up in East Germany has influenced her policy initiatives. Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up in Potsdam, as the daughter of a protestant pastor. Physics was her favorite subject and she planned to become a physicist. But restrictions on personal freedoms made achieving one’s potential extremely difficult. Upon graduation from the university, Chancellor Angela Merkel took a job as a Medical Translation professional. Dealing with the restrictive government regulations likely prepared Chancellor Angela Merkel well for entering politics in Germany.
Elected to the first parliament of the new, reunified country, she was appointed to a cabinet position by then chancellor Helmut Kohl. Although Kohl treated her boorishly (he called her the girl), she was able to excel in her position. But in 1997, Kohl’s political party received illegal contributions, according to an Arabic Translation agency. The money was supplied by two countries. One source of the money was from kickbacks for the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia and the other resulted from a fraudulent oil deal with the French. French translators revealed recently that the illegal funds were secretly transferred to Swiss banks in Geneva. Kohl became mired in the scandal but Chancellor Angela Merkel emerged unscathed.
Now, seventy percent of Germans report that they are highly satisfied with the job that Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing. Her commitment to fighting climate change and maintaining healthy economic growth while holding down unemployment has made her Germany’s favorite politician. Having addressed the US Congress, Chancellor Angela Merkel renewed her commitment to fighting human rights abuses. However, she will have to temper her popularity with demands from German voters to pull troops out of Afghanistan.To make matters worse, a German media outlet released the results of a new poll that found more than seventy percent of all German unsatisfied with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s second term. According to the release, Germans are most upset over her decisions on Afghanistan, taxes, and relations with Poland. According to one Financial Translation worker, “Another reason for Merkel’s low approval is that there has been a rise in government debt to record levels and there are fears the economic crisis will lead to unforeseen expenditures in the months ahead.” The government gave firms tax relief at the start of 2010. Even as politicans begin to think about new stimulus, Merkel’s conservatives have warned against making further tax breaks for companies while the FDP is insisting on a new and immediate round of cuts.
Although the debates continue in polls look bad for Merkel, she has decided to avoid public appearances for more than two weeks. But a government spokesman on Friday told a news conference she was content with the work of her new coalition, formed after her re-election last September. Furthermore, some of her aids have gone as far as organizing media events where they staged questions and indicated that Merkel is pleased with the coalition.
