Word: fdp
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Perhaps they should talk, instead. Five months after Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party began forming a new center-right government with Westerwelle's probusiness Free Democratic Party (FDP), the alliance that was billed as a marriage made in heaven is on the rocks. The government has been riven by infighting, bitter personal rivalries and squabbles over policy direction. The partisan bickering has grown so bad it threatens complete inertia. "The new government [has] had a catastrophic start," Gerd Langguth, author of a biography of Chancellor Merkel, tells TIME. "There's a cacophony of ideas and egos...
...recent crunch came when Westerwelle launched a blistering attack on Germany's cherished welfare state, criticizing handouts for the long-term unemployed. Raising welfare benefits smacks of socialism, Westerwelle wrote in the daily Welt newspaper on Feb. 11. "Whoever promises the people effortless prosperity encourages late Roman decadence." The FDP leader went on to argue that those who work should always get more than the unemployed and that young jobless Germans should take up community work like shoveling snow. (Read: "Guido Westerwelle: Angela Merkel's Unlikely Partner...
Then there's the minefield of health-care reform. Ministers are divided over how to reform Germany's complex health system and rein in spiraling medical costs. The upstart 36-year-old Health Minister Philipp Rösler (FDP) thinks he's come up with a solution to crack the problem: a flat-rate premium for health-care contributions so all Germans pay the same, regardless of income. But colleagues from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's sister party and the third partner in the coalition, have slammed the plan, saying it is not "socially fair...
Merkel is indeed in the stronger position. The FDP won a record 14.6% of the vote in last September's election, but it was never going to join up with the left-of-center Social Democratic party. That means there is no real alternative to the current coalition. But Merkel's lack of authority remains worrying. "Angela Merkel's strategy is to calm things down - her coping style is emotional and palliative," says Thomas Kliche, a political psychologist at the University of Hamburg. The problem is, "stagnation doesn't overcome crisis...
...send more. According to media reports, Westerwelle is opposed to a troop increase and would rather focus on efforts to train the Afghan police. But Merkel's Defense Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a member of the CSU, is reportedly open to the idea of contributing more troops. "The FDP is the problem child of Chancellor Merkel's new government," author Gerd Langguth, who has written a biography of Merkel, tells TIME. "Merkel isn't an ideologue; she's a pragmatist and a consensus builder. Her challenge is to find a compromise between the coalition parties...