Germany has elected a new Chancellor: Madam Angela Merkel . This election marks the first female chancellor in Germany’s history and puts Merkel in charge of Europe’s largest country. One of her primary objectives is to repair the chilled bilateral relations with the US , left from the Gerhard Schroeder anti-Iraq war days. While Schroeder ? who like a school boy has abdicated his seat in parliament and refused to work with Merkel’s coalition — was the epitome of the ‘old boy’s club,’ Merkel will prove to be a reserved, predictable leader. She is likely to bring Germany back to the coveted position of the US’s junior partner.

Merkel’s foreign policy remains somewhat nebulous, as she will be forced to reckon with Schroeder’s Social Democrats as part of her government, and her foreign minister was Schroeder’s chief of staff. While he, Frank-Walter Steinmeier , vocally opposed the war in Iraq, Merkel is likely to garner US President George Bush’s affection, simply because she is not Schroeder and visited the US to support the US plans in Iraq . However, she has already negged sending German troops to Iraq due to popular opposition for the war. She is likely to go against any military action in Iran , yet she probably will support the US in its arms embargo against China . She is also likely to focus on repairing Germany’s relations with Europe as well. Her government’s 191-page program states: “?it is essential to have a close relationship of trust between the United States and a self-confident Europe that sees itself not as a counterweight, but as a partner.” She is likely to want resolution to the Chechen issue in Russia and the simmering crisis in the Balkans. To that, she is opposed to Turkish full membership to the EU, preferring a “privileged partnership” status. And, her intentions are to engage “the smaller EU states” ? including Eastern Europe, from whence she came — and the UK over her predecessor’s exclusive attention to the triad of Germany, France , and Russia. Relations with France are fairly likely to sour in light of Schroeder’s fraternity boy-like ties to Jacques Chirac, and Nicolas Sarkozy is no better bedfellow for her. Any more attention to European policy, which occupied very little of Merkel’s political campaign, would be premature speculation.