'Maggie' Merkel, Germany's Mrs. Thatcher?

Once dismissed patronizingly as 'The Girl' by chancellor Helmut Kohl, Mrs. Angela Merkel has emerged as his possible successor as the next CDU/CSU chancellor of the Federal Republic.

The diminutive 50 year old childless divorcee is an unlikely choice to lead Germany, and as both an East German and protestant an equally unlikely champion for the mainly catholic CDU/CSU which enjoys strong support from German industry leaders.

Indeed, Germans themselves often ask: who is Angela Merkel? Yet unless incumbent Gerhard Schroeder can pull a very large rabbit out of his political hat, Mrs. Merkel is going to take the top job this autumn.

What does she stand for? Her tone is strident and persuasive; the 'Maggie Thatcher' type of lecture comes to mind. What she has to say is perhaps more vague, and is left open to a good deal of interpretation.

However, there is no doubt that the German uber-class knows what needs to be done. The nation is crying out for labour market reform, fairer taxation and deregulation, although nobody wants to face the logical consequence of even higher unemployment in the short-term.

To be fair to Mrs. Merkel nobody in Britain understood what Mrs. Thatcher's policy would mean in 1979; it sent unemployment from one to three million before there was violence on the streets in the miner's strike. Mrs. Merkel herself probably has no such intention either.

On the other hand, there is definitely a feeling in Germany that something has to change, and that things can not go on as they have been. Mrs. Merkel is a populist politician who has skillfully maneuvered herself into the position of representing this position.

Whether she can now deliver is another matter. Her performance to a meeting of the German construction industry federation was impressive and professional. This is clearly a person at the peak of their powers with some considerable energy and determination in store. But she is going to need it in the years to come.