Chapter 9

Kings (Merkel’s Contemporaries)

Angela Merkel smiled awkwardly as Gerhard Schröder insisted he was staying on as chancellor. Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc may have squeezed in ahead of his Social Democrats, but in Schröder’s eyes he hadn’t lost the 2005 election. “There’s only one clear loser and that’s Frau Merkel,” Schröder said during a televised debate between the main party leaders after the polls had closed. “The result is clear: No-one but me is in a position to form a stable government, no-one.” Merkel, wearing dark eyeshadow that only seemed to accentuate her discomfort, said she needed “a few more facts” before she was able to fully analyze the results, but as the leader of the single biggest bloc, she had the right to ...

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