Word: berliner
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When Germany's Deputy Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle held a briefing for reporters in Berlin last month, he arrived exuding an aura of defiance and ebullience. It didn't last. Germany's Westerwelle had come to talk about the Bundestag's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. Instead, he found himself bombarded with questions about a rumored rift with his boss, Chancellor Angela Merkel. "We have an absolutely untarnished relationship," Westerwelle insisted. "We text each other like there's no tomorrow...
...years in opposition, the ambitious politician is enjoying his first taste of power. Even though his main job is Foreign Minister, Westerwelle has flexed his muscles on domestic issues from tax reform to health care to nuclear power. Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at the Free University in Berlin says Westerwelle's inexperience in government makes him a loose cannon. "Westerwelle's criticism gives the impression that Angela Merkel can't control her Cabinet," says Neugebauer. "Germans are asking who's in charge? Westerwelle looks like he's the cook and Merkel is the waiter...
...feet. Unemployment is creeping up and public finances are deteriorating. Germany's budget deficit reached 3.3% of GDP in 2009 and is forecast to rise to more than 5% of GDP this year - far more than the 3% limit set by European Union rules. Add in worries that Berlin could end up bailing Greece out of its own financial predicament (so far Merkel's response to calls for help has been a firm nein, though she has proposed a new European Monetary Fund that could help in the future) and you can understand why Germans are disgruntled...
...prove the show must go on, Merkel hosted another meeting of her coalition partners in Berlin late last month. Westerwelle called the talks "constructive," but just 24 hours later, repeated his controversial rant against the welfare state and said that he'd provoked a "necessary debate." In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Merkel accused Westerwelle of repeating the obvious. Of course those who work should get more than those who don't work, the Chancellor said. The message: I'm in charge. (Read: "Angela Merkel's Moment...
RAINER WENDT, German police-union head, on four bandits who stormed a poker tournament in Berlin and stole about $330,000 in jackpot money in a chaotic heist caught on videotape...