Angela Merkel

DUESSELDORF, Germany — Voters in Germany's most populous state dealt a decisive blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union on Sunday, preliminary results show, a potentially ominous preview of things to come for the chancellor in next year's federal elections. Merkel's party mustered about 26% of the vote in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a drop from 35% in 2010 and 45% in 2005, the year she took office, the results show. The opposition Social Democrats and Greens, at about 39% and more than 11%, respectively, secured the majority of seats they needed to form a governing coalition.

"We have made Italy, now we must make Italians," goes the old saying. Today we have made the euro, and the crisis of the euro is unmaking Europeans. People who felt enthusiastically European 10 years ago are reverting to angry national stereotypes. "Hitler-Merkel" read a banner carried by young Cypriot protesters this week. Next to those words was an image of the European flag, its yellow stars on a blue background crossed out in red. Sweeping negative generalizations are heard about "North" and "South" Europeans.

Rising in the male-dominated beer-and-BMW politics of Germany, Angela Merkel is known less for eloquent speeches and charisma than for intellectual rigor and an unabashed quest for power that have intrigued this nation for years. Merkel may make history Sunday, when polls in a tight election campaign predict the 51-year-old conservative will become the country's first female chancellor.

Did you see that German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a nice trip south Tuesday to Greece?  Went really well; 30,000 or so Greeks turned out to greet her.  OK, well, "greet" might not be the right word. The Greeks can be fun-loving and laid back, but not when it comes to the leader whom, as The Times reported , “they blame for pushing Greece down the road to economic ruin through her relentless emphasis on austerity in exchange for emergency aid.” So it was kind of like President Obama going to a tea party rally.

His delivery trucks parked like a tiny army in waiting, Klaus Wiedemann pondered nut bread and the ever-infuriating German economy. He's the fourth generation of a family of bakers who survived two world wars and a city split by decades of communism. These days, he says, it's social programs and binders of government regulations that thwart medium-sized businesses like his from competing in an economy weakened by years of wavering consumer spending and flat growth. "There are too many rules.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday urged Congress to take dramatic action to stop climate change, but the political difficulties were evident as Republicans boycotted a Senate committee meeting on a global warming bill. "We cannot afford missing the objectives in climate protection," Merkel said at a joint session of Congress. "The world will look to us, to the Europeans and to the Americans." Just before Merkel's speech, Republicans shunned the meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee to protest the refusal of Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative leader Angela Merkel met for the first time since Sunday's election but showed no signs of settling a bitter standoff over who won the vote and who should lead Germany if their parties are forced into a coalition. Merkel's party won 27.8%, and the Christian Social Union won 7.4%, giving their alliance 35.2%. Schroeder's party won 34.3%.

German Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel said that cutting unemployment and Germany's budget deficit would be her priorities as leader. She added that a month of hard work would be needed to get a new government in place. Germany's persistently high jobless rate helped bring down outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's center-left coalition in last month's parliamentary elections. Merkel told Der Spiegel in an interview that "unemployment must fall in this parliamentary term."

Germany's main parties sealed an agreement to create a government of traditional rivals under the leadership of conservative Angela Merkel, breaking eight weeks of deadlock after an inconclusive general election. Merkel will become the country's first female chancellor and the first from the former communist East if, as expected, Parliament formally elects her Nov. 22.

President Bush has adopted a hands-off policy with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "No back rubs," a smiling Bush declared while posing for photos with Merkel at the White House. She seemed to agree. Bush was making light of his gaffe at a summit of industrial nations last year. At the time, he gave an impromptu rub of Merkel's neck and shoulders. The chancellor hunched her shoulders in surprise, threw her arms up and grimaced, though she appeared to smile as Bush walked away.

BERLIN - As European leaders gather in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day summit aimed at resolving the Eurozone's debt crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's response to the most aggressive proposal pushed by her neighbors is, in essence: Over my dead body. With borrowing costs for Spain and Italy approaching unsustainable levels, European Union leaders have stepped up their pressure on Germany to accept solutions it has long resisted. But Merkel, whose country has Europe's largest economy and probably will foot the highest share of the bill for rescuing its struggling neighbors, has dug in her heels.

DUESSELDORF, Germany — Voters in Germany's most populous state dealt a decisive blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union on Sunday, preliminary results show, a potentially ominous preview of things to come for the chancellor in next year's federal elections. Merkel's party mustered about 26% of the vote in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a drop from 35% in 2010 and 45% in 2005, the year she took office, the results show. The opposition Social Democrats and Greens, at about 39% and more than 11%, respectively, secured the majority of seats they needed to form a governing coalition.

PARIS - Exuberant supporters were still out celebrating Francois Hollande's election as president of France when the first fissures began opening up in the Franco-German motor that drives the rest of Europe. Although officials on both sides of the Rhine vowed to continue their close political cooperation, German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a blunt rejection Monday of Hollande's pledge to renegotiate a Europe-wide fiscal treaty to rein in public debt. Nor would she countenance deficit spending to boost the economic growth that Europe so desperately needs, pouring cold water on another of Hollande's campaign promises.

In a major embarrassment for Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany's president resigned Friday after weeks of a brewing scandal over alleged favors he received as an elected official before becoming head of state. With his wife, Bettina, at his side, Christian Wulff acknowledged in a terse statement that the controversy surrounding him had sapped public faith in his ability to serve as president and as a uniting force in Germany. "The republic needs a president … who is supported by the confidence of not only a majority but a wide majority of citizens," Wulff told reporters at the presidential palace in Berlin.

The leaders of France and Germany pledged to remake the rules of Europe, creating a closer economic union buttressed by strict rules on government spending and automatic sanctions against countries that break them. They now must persuade the rest of Europe to agree, and convince dubious financial markets that the steps are enough to regain control over a debt crisis that threatens to destroy the common euro currency. Compromising on their policy differences, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint news conference in Paris on Monday that the European Union — or at least the inner core of 17 countries that share the euro — requires greater budgetary discipline.

European leaders are coming to grips with the fact that in forging a stronger union capable of weathering the continent's debt problems, they are also likely to create a more German Europe. Germany and France, the continent's two heavyweights — in that order — each made a proposal in the last two days to tighten the bonds of the Eurozone by putting member nations' spending and budgets under stricter central control. Aligning fiscal and economic policies, they say, is the only way for the zone's shared euro currency to survive this crisis and avoid new ones.

Re "Merkel to Make German History as Chancellor," Oct. 11. Just when I had digested the idea of a German pope ruling the Vatican, Germany elects its first woman chancellor, Angela Merkel. Mother Courage comes to the people. Let's celebrate the liberation of Berlin: Burn the French bras, free bratwurst and beer, move the Reichstag down the sweet Rhine to Cologne where the scent of this woman will change the destiny of the European Union forever. MIKE NALLY Garden Grove

Angela Merkel was sworn in for a second term as German chancellor and her new center-right government took up the task of tackling the country's tough economic situation a month after national elections. Merkel, 55, will serve as chancellor of a ruling coalition made up of her Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister party the Christian Social Union, and the pro-business Free Democrats. She was elected through a vote of 323 in favor out of a possible 612. But nine members of coalition parties voted against her, leading some to question the government's solidity hours after she and her 15 ministers were sworn in. In its sweeping agenda, the new coalition has promised an overhaul of the healthcare system, more help for families and annual tax cuts of up $36 billion.

With the European debt crisis lapping up against France and threatening to crumple the continent's currency system, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finds herself increasingly standing alone at the center of the intensifying drama that begs for more help from Germany. But she hasn't budged — yet. Under intense domestic pressure, Merkel has continued to use the power of Europe's strongest economy to insist that her beleaguered partners accept a new financial order and, indirectly, a new political reality.

She says more Europe. He says less Europe. Let's call the whole thing off? At the beginning of this week, the German and British leaders gave their responses to what is clearly an existential crisis of the post-1945 European project. On Friday, they meet in Berlin to see if they can bridge the gap. If they succeed, it will be a miracle on the Spree. Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Banquet in London, David Cameron evoked a Europe "with the flexibility of a network, not the rigidity of a bloc.