Merkel's Report Card

Angela Merkel has obviously taken to her job. While she often still seemed awkward and insecure after first coming to the Chancellery, nothing seems to challenge her now.

When a Polish magazine publishes a tasteless Merkel caricature, the chancellor dryly remarks that this is part of press freedom. When her Social Democratic coalition partner, in a fight with the Christian Democratic Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, accuses her of lack of leadership, she answers that it's normal that the chancellor's leadership style gets criticized once in a while -- and then she points to the successes of her leadership style so far.

She says that it's important to debate different viewpoints and opinions to the end in today's complicated world. But there comes a time when decisions have to be made -- and that's always happened while she's been in charge, she says.

One doesn't have to be a friend of Merkel's CDU party to note that Angela Merkel -- unlike many heads of government halfway through their term -- is not in poor form. Quite to the contrary: A poll published to coincide with her press conference on her government's mid-term achievements shows that even a majority of Social Democrats would like to see her stay in office rather than their own leader, Kurt Beck.

Still: Angela Merkel's re-election on a little over two years is far from certain. The same polls also show that the two large political camps in Germany continue to be almost equal in size -- the so-called middle-class camp consisting of the CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, and the free-market, liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) on the one hand and the so-called left camp made up of Social Democrats, Greens and the newly formed Left party.

Since the camps are no longer as rigid as they used to be, there's lots of talk about coalition possibilities that could help avoid another grand coalition in 2009.

It would be a miracle if these speculations were not to flourish during the upcoming summer break that usually lacks news in domestic politics. It can also be expected that Social Democrats, who have become nervous because of the new Left, will provoke clashes with the chancellor and her party.

That's why it's even more important for Merkel to use the months following the summer break to push ahead with important issues. At her press conference on Wednesday, she mentioned a long list of plans that will be fine-tuned at a cabinet retreat in late August when all ministers are refreshed and back in Berlin.

Setting timelines is part of Merkel's successful style of governing -- even if more time might have helped in some cases, such as the health care reform that's widely regarded as a failure.

Clearly there are still quite a few cliffs ahead of Angela Merkel. But judging from the way that she reviewed her work up to this point for the press, she'll probably be completely relaxed and at peace with herself when she travels to the Richard Wagner Festival in a week -- and subsequently goes on vacation.

Peter Stützle heads DW-RADIO's capital bureau in Berlin (win)