New settings in German politic scene

Chancellor Angela MerkelAngela Merkel and her new ally Guido Westerwelle, leader of the Free Democratic Party, opened talks Monday on forming a new German government.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavaria-only sister, the Christian Social Union, won a majority in Germany's Sept. 27 election for a center-right government with their preferred allies, the Free Democrats. That allows Merkel to end her awkward "grand coalition" with Germany's main center-left party, the Social Democrats.

"Every new government is a new beginning, and we want to create more courage for the future," said the Free Democrats' leader, Guido Westerwelle, who is expected to become the new vice chancellor.

The executive committee of the German Social Democratic Party, instead, has proposed as new chairman Sigmar Gabriel, outgoing Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety minister in the cabinet of Angela Merkel.

Born 1959 in Goslar, Lower Saxony, he succeeds Franz Muentefering, who takes up after the defeat of the Socialists in the last general election.

The summit recommended that the SPD party congress in November also choose Andrea Nahles as the new general secretary.

Mrs. Nahles is known with in the party for criticizing Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010, a series of reforms planned and executed by the German government which are aimed at reforming the German social system and labour market, and thus identified with the SPD's left wing.