Goodbye, Schroeder!

AP: Germany's Female Leader Steps Up---

(AP) Conservative Angela Merkel took power Tuesday as Germany's first female chancellor and its first leader to grow up behind the Iron Curtain, saying the public was eager for the government to get to work after six months of political turmoil.

But the 51-year-old former scientist will have a tough job turning around Europe's biggest economy after years of stagnation. In a potential sign of trouble ahead, more than 50 members of Merkel's unwieldy 448-lawmaker coalition voted against her Tuesday. Still, the strength of her party's alliance with the left-wing Social Democrats allowed her to win easily in the lower house, or Bundestag.

"Expectations are very high among people in this country that problems get solved, policies made and decisions taken," Merkel said as she ceremonially took over the imposing chancellery across from the Reichstag parliament building.
---
The Protestant minister's daughter, who grew up in officially atheist East Germany, added the optional words, "So help me God," to her oath, a phrase Schroeder had left out.
---
She also faces foreign policy challenges such as nursing a recovering relationship with the United States.

Merkel, who heads the Christian Democratic Union, will begin her term in office — four years, if the coalition lasts — with visits to France and Britain on Wednesday and Thursday. A visit to Washington is expected in the next few weeks.

The White House congratulated Merkel and said it hoped she would meet soon with President Bush.

"We look forward to working closely with Chancellor Merkel and the new government to strengthen the U.S-German partnership in advancing freedom and prosperity around the world," said Kate Starr, spokesperson for the National Security Council.

The new chancellor has suggested that Berlin will place less emphasis on relations with Paris and Moscow and says she views Europe as a partner, not a counterweight, to the United States.