TWELVE weeks after its election, followed by the longest coalition negotiations in its history, Germany has a new government at last. And although there was never any doubt that Angela Merkel would continue leading it as chancellor, the cabinet she chose contained a surprise: Germany’s new defence minister will be Ursula von der Leyen, the first woman in that job. Mrs von der Leyen (centre, above), who at 55 is four years younger than Mrs Merkel, is now the most obvious member of Mrs Merkel’s party, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to run for chancellor when Mrs Merkel, who is now starting her third term, steps down.Mrs von der Leyen’s most likely opponent would be Sigmar Gabriel (left, above), leader of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). Since the SPD’s poor showing in the election (it got only 25.7% of votes, against 41.5% for Mrs Merkel’s camp), he has skilfully manoeuvred his party into another “grand coalition” with Mrs Merkel, wrangling concessions out of her in the process and winning a referendum of party members to approve the pact by the huge margin of 75% to 25%. Now he is vice-chancellor and minister with a newly combined…
