Merkel, at 60, riding a wave of popularity
Print Edition
ANGELA Merkel, it seems, has had her fill of parties for now.
Just four days after joining Germany’s jubilant soccer players in their dressing room to revel in their World Cup triumph, the chancellor is making sure she doesn’t get carried away on her 60th birthday today.
It is hard to imagine a more low-key celebration for Merkel, named by Forbes magazine as the world’s most powerful woman but still known as “Mutti”, or Mummy, in her homeland where her no-nonsense attitude merely enhances her soaring popularity.
She will mark the birthday, which has set off a new debate about how long Germany’s first female government leader will stay in office, at a rather serious event at her conservative party’s headquarters in Berlin.
After a speech about “the time horizons of history” by the historian Juergen Osterhammel — Merkel’s personal choice — up to 1,000 guests will attend a reception with beer, wine and northern German fare including fish.
Nothing too fancy, said one official.
After a tough start to the year, which saw her hobbling on crutches after a skiing accident, a crisis in Ukraine to deal with and her Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners stealing the limelight on domestic policies, she looks as strong as ever.
A Forsa poll yesterday showed that even after 8-1/2 years as chancellor, some 59 percent of Germans would vote for Merkel in a head-to-head contest with her main rival, SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel.
A July 3 survey found that 71 percent of Germans were happy or very happy with her work.
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