Berlin
Chancellor-elect Angela Merkel chose her Cabinet members this week—or rather, they were chosen for her. In the “grand coalition” deal between her conservative Christian Democrats and the liberal Social Democrats, outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder got to pick eight of the 14 ministerial posts. Even for the six other spots, Merkel had to bow to the wishes of Edmund Stoiber, leader of another party that supported her, as well as to rivals in her own party. “It is not going to be an easy time for her,” said political scientist Gero Neugebauer. Merkel’s party won last month’s parliamentary elections by such a tiny margin that it could not form a government without its rivals.
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