Word: langguth
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...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, and Angela Merkel still hasn't come up with a vision for her new government." (See video: "Global Business Trips: Germany...
...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...
...saying that the Chancellor had been "apathetic and too lazy to think" during last fall's negotiations to form a new government. Experts say the criticism is not entirely surprising. "Chancellor Merkel has to take this letter seriously as it's struck a chord with thousands of conservative supporters," Langguth says. (Read "Anger Mounts in Germany Over Its Afghan Air Strike...
...Merkel's win in one of Germany's biggest states, a financial center and home to the European Central Bank, puts wind in her sails as she campaigns on behalf of her party and for her own re-election in September. Gerd Langguth, a political scientist and Merkel biographer, says the Hesse result means Merkel's return to the Chancellery is assured. The real question is whether Merkel will be able to form a coalition with the FDP or continue the so-called grand coalition with the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), he says. "Merkel believes that it would...
...underlying problem of losing votes to Die Linke, which under party chairman Oskar Lafontaine - himself a former SPD Chancellor candidate - has grown to become the third largest party in Germany in just three years. "Germany's oldest political party hasn't managed to adapt to modern times," says Langguth. "These days, it consists of two wings - the traditionalists and the reformers," and their differences are growing rather than abating...