A year ago, Angela Merkel, Germany’s charming new chancellor, was in the final phase of her election campaign. The incumbent, Gerhard Schröder, lagged so far behind her Christian Democrats (CDU) in public opinion polls that she thought she would win a landslide victory and could therefore afford to expound the cruelties of the liberal austerity program delineated in her electoral campaign. She even announced a value-added tax increase (which her new government has, indeed, decided to implement in 2007).
A year ago, Angela Merkel, Germany’s charming new chancellor, was in the final phase of her election campaign. The incumbent, Gerhard Schröder, lagged so far behind her Christian Democrats (CDU) in public opinion polls that she thought she would win a landslide victory and could therefore afford to expound the cruelties of the liberal austerity program delineated in her electoral campaign. She even announced a value-added tax increase (which her new government has, indeed, decided to implement in 2007).