After World Cup, Real-World Issues Loom for Chancellor Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel spent four weeks basking in the international spotlight, presiding over a football tournament that surpassed all expectations by going off efficiently, peacefully and with an elan that few expected of the Germans.

She wrote a letter thanking German fans for their sportsmanship and hospitality, publishing it in the top-selling daily Bild on Monday.

"Let the mood in which we Germans have presented ourselves to the world last long beyond this summer!" she wrote.

Back to the grindstone

But the month-long party will come to an abrupt end this week with a raft of high-level diplomatic meetings and rumblings within her "grand coalition" government that could threaten her grip on power.

The huddles begin Tuesday with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who will open a new UN campus in the former West German capital Bonn.

They are to discuss hot-button issues including Iran, Iraq, North Korea and the Middle East before Bush's arrival on Germany's Baltic coast late Wednesday.

Merkel and Bush have grown chummy since she took power last November and she agreed to give him a glimpse behind the former Iron Curtain, in her electoral district.

Guantanamo Bay still a thorny issue

But beyond the friendly walks and chats with former dissidents, Merkel will be under pressure to take a firm line with her guest against the US lockup for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, where a German citizen has been held without charge for four years along with 450 prisoners still left in the camp.

The leader of the opposition Greens, Claudia Roth, held Merkel's feet to the fire, saying that she had an obligation to help Bush close the site.

"Germany should say it is prepared to take in Guantanamo detainees," Roth told the Berliner Zeitung on Monday.

A major protest by peace activists could also overshadow the visit. Up to 15,000 police officers will be dispatched to ensure the president's safety and keep the demonstrators at bay.

Merkel is then expected in Saint Petersburg for her first Group of Eight summit of industrialized nations, before Germany assumes the presidency next year.

Germany stands relatively alone on nuclear power

She stands largely isolated on a central issue on the agenda at the weekend meeting -- energy policy -- because of Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power just as other member countries eye an expansion of their own networks.

Merkel will have to square the circle with the powerful men's club -- reaching a consensus with the G8 leaders on a future energy strategy while remaining true to a coalition agreement to mothball the country's reactors by about 2020.

Finally, off the world stage, Merkel is hearing ever-louder grumbling over a health care overhaul announced last week that was intended to rescue the system for decades to come.

The loudest criticism has targeted the decision to hike employer and employee contributions into the public health care fund, effectively raising the cost of job creation at a time when unemployment hovers above 10 percent.

The press said Merkel buckled under pressure from state leaders from her own Christian Union to refuse any tax hikes to fund the system.

"After a roaring start and brilliant appearances in world capitals, her domestic policies have stalled," the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel wrote in its Monday issue.

The magazine continued: "She is often compared to Maggie Thatcher but she is more likely the political foster child of Helmut Kohl," the magazine said. Kohl was Merkel's former mentor, who was voted out of office in 1998 for failing to implement urgently needed reforms.