Germany extends virus shutdown until March 7

BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel's government agreed Wednesday to continue a partial lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic until at least March 7, even as Germans grow increasingly weary of the tough restrictions.

Following crunch talks with the leaders of Germany's 16 states, Merkel said that the number of new Covid-19 infections in Europe's top economy was dropping after more than two months of shuttered schools and shops.

"When we look at this development we can be quite satisfied," she told reporters. 

But she called on Germans to be patient as fears grow over more contagious virus variants first detected in Britain and South Africa.

"We want to do everything in our power so that we don't end up riding an up-and-down wave of openings and closures," Merkel said, calling the period until mid-March "existential" for Germany's management of the pandemic. 

The new strains "are spreading especially quickly and require significant additional efforts", the government said in conclusions agreed at the meeting.

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

Under Germany's federal system, regional states have significant decision-making powers and some have strayed from the government line in the past to loosen some restrictions.

The text stresses that schools and daycare centers should be "the first to gradually reopen", but that it is for individual states to decide how and when.

After the announcement, Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller said the capital would begin partially reopening schools from February 22, with other regions expected to follow suit.

The conclusions call on Health Minister Jens Spahn to review whether nursery workers and teachers can be given higher priority in vaccinations. 

Hairdressers may reopen on March 1 if they take the necessary hygiene precautions.

The conclusions also raise the prospect of museums, galleries and some services restarting once the virus incidence rate falls to 35 new cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period.

The government had earlier set an incidence target of 50 but revised it downward due to the threat of what Merkel called "exponential growth" posed by the more contagious virus mutations. 

With an eye to an outbreak of the South African variant in the Austrian region of Tyrol bordering Germany's Bavaria state, Merkel said she had conveyed her "concern" to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday.

SCIENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT

Germany closed restaurants, hotels, culture and leisure centers in November, followed by schools and non-essential shops in December. The measures were later extended until February 14.

Since then, new Covid-19 cases have dropped considerably and the seven-day incidence rate has fallen below 75 for the first time since November.

The figure is currently at 68, down from 111 at the last such meeting on January 28, Merkel said. 

But Covid-19 deaths remain troublingly high, and hospitals say they are still close to capacity.

Germany on Wednesday added another 8,072 coronavirus cases to the official figures, bringing the total to just under 2.3 million. 

Almost 63,000 people have died of the virus, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.

Although a majority of Germans still back Merkel's science-based management of the crisis, fatigue is setting in after three long months of restrictions and amid a sluggish vaccine rollout.

A YouGov poll this week showed that just half of Germans want the current measures to be maintained or tightened, down from 65 percent in early January.

Merkel said she and state leaders would convene again on March 3 to fine-tune the restrictions based on the latest data.

Agence France-Presse

Merkel vows to 'win back trust' after Bavaria poll debacle

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed yesterday to "win back trust" from voters after squabbling within her three-party coalition was blamed for severe election losses in the state of Bavaria.

Looking back at a turbulent year since 2017 general elections, which saw painful coalition talks followed by harsh infighting on immigration, she conceded that "a lot of trust has been lost".

Her lesson from Sunday's Bavaria polls, where her governing partners the CSU and the SPD suffered heavy losses, was that "I as the chancellor must do more to ensure that this trust is there".

Her own Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the CSU "can be expected to act in a united way," she said, pointing to her deep rift with the CSU's hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

The governing parties were in shell-shock after Sunday's regional election, where the CSU took a 10-point dive to 37 percent, losing its absolute majority in the Alpine state it has ruled since the 1960s.

Merkel's other national coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), dropped to 9.7 percent, halving their support in their worst-ever result in any state poll.

- 'Brutal losses' -
The biggest winners Sunday were the opposition Greens, who surged to become Bavaria's second strongest party with 17.5 percent, drawing support especially in big cities like Munich.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has railed against Merkel's 2015 decision to keep open German borders to a mass influx of refugees and migrants, scored 10 percent.

Their success was cheered by right-wing leaders including Marine Le Pen of France and Italy's Matteo Salvini, who said that "in Bavaria, change has won".

The AfD's Alice Weidel jubilantly declared that Merkel's government "is not a grand coalition but a mini coalition" and demanded she "clear the way for new elections".

The poll debacle cast a dark cloud over Merkel's troubled grand coalition, dubbed the "GroKo", said Der Spiegel.

"The Bavaria election has made an early end to the GroKo much more likely," it said.

"Two of three partners in the GroKo have suffered brutal losses. The third, Angela Merkel's CDU, fears the consequences."

- Shattered certainties -
The Bavaria poll result shattered old certainties for the CSU, which has ruled almost single-handedly for decades in the southern state known for its fairytale castles, Oktoberfest and crucifixes on classroom walls.

Since the mass migrant arrivals, in which Bavaria was Germany's frontline state, the CSU has adopted far tougher anti-immigration and law and order positions.

Nonetheless, they and other big parties took heavy losses in 2017 federal elections to the AfD, which became the first right-wing extremist party to enter the German parliament in significant numbers.

The CSU's Seehofer has harshly criticised Merkel and the SPD over their more liberal stance on immigration, twice bringing their alliance to the brink of collapse.

The political battles, one centred on securing German borders against asylum seekers, have distracted Merkel's fourth-term government and angered voters.

After Sunday's election, Seehofer, 69, insisted he would stay on as minister, even as a poll for news weekly Focus said 46 percent of Germans blame him and his brinkmanship for the CSU's historically-poor result.

- Merkel's 'litmus test' -
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said, following what it labelled a new milestone in the decline of German mainstream parties, Merkel's coalition now has a stark choice: a return to "common sense, or new elections".

The SPD's deputy leader Ralf Stegner told Phoenix TV that "the citizens delivered a resounding slap" to the governing parties and that, unless they change, "the grand coalition won't last much longer".

In Berlin, the GroKo leaders are now nervously looking ahead to another landmark regional vote at the end of the month.

Voters go to the polls on October 28 in central Hesse state, home to the financial hub Frankfurt, where polls say Merkel ally Volker Bouffier will face an uphill battle to stay on as state premier.

Die Welt daily said the regional vote will be "the litmus test" for Merkel, who is running for re-election as CDU party chief in December, stressing that "Merkel's future could be decided in Hesse".

source: philstar.com

McCain: How to get started as a dictator? Suppress free press.

MUNICH - US Senator John McCain, defending the media against the latest attack by President Donald Trump, warned suppressing the free press was "how dictators get started."

The Arizona Republican, a frequent critic of Trump, was responding to a tweet in which Trump accused the media of being “the enemy of the American people.”

The international order established after World War Two was built in part on a free press, McCain said in an excerpt of an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that was released in advance of the full Sunday morning broadcast.

"I hate the press. I hate you especially," he told interviewer Chuck Todd from an international security conference in Munich. "But the fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital."

"If you want to preserve - I'm very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started," he continued.

"They get started by suppressing free press. In other words, a consolidation of power. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press. And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history," McCain said.

McCain’s comments followed Trump’s tweet and came days after the president held a raucous news conference at which he repeatedly criticized news reports about disorder in the White House and leaks of his telephone conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel underscored the importance of a free press at the Munich conference on Saturday, saying, "I have high respect for journalists. We've always had good results, at least in Germany, by relying on mutual respect."

Merkel did not mention Trump specifically, but called freedom of the press "a very significant pillar of democracy."

source: interaksyon.com

Angela Merkel lands in India, with trade high on the agenda

NEW DELHI, India - German Chancellor Angela Merkel landed in New Delhi late Sunday for a visit in which she is expected to push for closer trade ties, and during which India's leader hopes to draw investment from the European powerhouse.

Briefly leaving behind a refugee crisis in Europe, Merkel arrived with a delegation including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and German business leaders for her first visit to India since the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party stormed to power last year.

"Namaste Chancellor Merkel! Warm welcome to you & the delegation. I look forward to fruitful discussions & strengthening India-Germany ties," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter.

She will meet with Modi, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday before she heads to the southern technology hub of Bangalore for a businness conference the next day.

Modi and Merkel will hold talks on "issues of mutual interest", including trade, defence and renewable energy, according to the Indian foreign ministry.

The two are likely to discuss resuming stalled India-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations -- a market-opening pact to boost bilateral commerce.

German investments in India stand at 9.7 billion euros with about 1,600 companies in the country.

Modi officially visited Germany in April when he sought to attract more industries to set up shop in Asia's third-largest economy for his flagship "Make in India" campaign and boost the manufacturing sector.

source: interaksyon.com

Europe tensely awaits Greek voters' decision

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other EU leaders await with trepidation the outcome of a referendum in Greece Sunday that is already dividing opinion in Europe and could even shape its future.

After months of fruitless talks with its creditors, Greece's dramatic bid to place a bailout decision in the hands of its people will have an impact far beyond the heavily-indebted country's borders, analysts warn.

The vote on whether to support Greece's radical left-led government in its tough anti-austerity line is a "signpost" for future negotiations, said Julian Rappold of the German Council on Foreign Relations.

With fears a "No" vote could lead to Greece exiting the eurozone -- a so-called "Grexit" -- Pawel Tokarski of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs said its impact would reach much further.

It will "determine the future trajectory of European integration," he said.

Merkel, seemingly sanguine last week in remarking that Europe could "calmly" await the result of the referendum because the bloc was "strong," has been at the forefront of efforts to resolve the crisis.

Now, the head of Europe's biggest economy is "faced with a dilemma," Rappold said.

If Greece were to leave the euro, it would signify the failure of Europe's crisis management that Merkel has championed though years of economic turbulence.

"She would not like it to be said that she pushed Greece out of the euro," Rappold added.

She also fears unforeseen economic consequences, a boost for anti-euro groups in some countries and that a "No" vote would be seen as a sign of weakness by nations such as Russia or China, he added.

But if Greek voters defy Tspiras and vote "Yes," Merkel must win parliamentary approval for negotiations on a new aid program for Greece amid growing dissent within her conservative party on the Greece issue.

She would also have to win over a bailout-weary public tired of picking up a lion's share of the bill.

'Nein', 'Oxi'

But the referendum is not just dividing Greeks.

Germany's Bild mass-market daily, which has taken a tough line with Athens since the start of the crisis, held its own referendum, asking readers if they wanted to go on supporting Greece with billions of euros.

It said the response indicated that 89 percent of the 200,000 people who took part said "Nein."

Thousands of Greece supporters meanwhile took to the streets of Barcelona, Paris, Dublin, and Frankfurt to show solidarity with the Greek people and hit back at European policies.

Merkel was greeted by placards stating "Oxi" (no, in Greek) at an event in Berlin Saturday for her Christian Democratic Union party's open day.

In Spain, which has endured its own economic crisis, allies of Greece's Syriza party see the referendum as an historic opportunity to change Europe, months before the country holds its own polls.

Parties on the political right however fear a spread of radical leftist policies.

If Italians were called to vote like the Greeks, 51 percent would support tough measures imposed by Europe to avoid crashing out of the euro, while 30 percent would vote against, according to a recent poll by Ipsos.

And Britain, too, where voters will be called to decide on its future in Europe, sees a particular resonance in the Greek bid.

Different interpretation

Elsewhere among Europe's leadership, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi will also dread a "No" vote.

He is not accountable to voters but nevertheless is in "an extremely difficult situation," Tokarski said.

Through its emergency funding, the ECB is keeping Greek banks afloat. If it were to stop these loans, it would risk pressing the "Grexit" button -- a decision its chief wants to leave to the politicians.

For now though, the post-referendum scenario is far from clear, especially as the question being posed is open to wide interpretation.

Athens argues it means saying "No" to new austerity measures proposed by creditors in return for aid.

But this proposal has in the meantime expired, leaving others to interpret the referendum as a vote for or against the euro.

"Whatever the result, it will be interpreted differently by political forces in Greece and in the eurozone," Tokarski warned.

source: interaksyon.com

Greece submits fresh plan on eve of EU emergency summit

ATHENS, Greece - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented new proposals to European leaders Sunday aimed at ending his country's debt crisis, on the eve of a summit that could determine whether Greece crashes out of the eurozone.

In a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Tsipras detailed a "mutually beneficial deal", the Greek premier's office said in a statement.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi urged the two sides to seize a "window of opportunity", saying all conditions were in place for them to reach a "win-win accord".

Athens said its new proposals were aimed at reaching a "definitive solution" to the five-month standoff between Athens and its creditors -- the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank -- as fears deepened over a potential "Grexit" from the eurozone.

The heads of the 19 eurozone countries will hold an emergency summit on the crisis in Brussels on Monday under pressure to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt with a June 30 payment deadline fast approaching.

Sanity will prevail

The head of Greece's biggest bank said she thought "sanity will prevail" on Monday.

"To enter into such uncharted waters and take up all the risk both for the eurozone and for Greece for two or three billion (euro) difference, I think it's insane," National Bank of Greece chief Louka Katseli told BBC radio.

Greece's anti-austerity government met Sunday to refine its proposals, while a European source said Tsipras and Juncker "held talks Saturday and will again speak Sunday", adding that there were many exchanges and "informal work under way to find a solution".

Failing a deal, Greece is likely to default on an IMF debt payment of around 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) due on June 30, setting up a potentially chaotic exit from the eurozone.

Last Wednesday the Greek central bank put the risk in stark terms saying: "Failure to reach an agreement would... mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and -– most likely -– from the European Union."

The IMF was called in to help rescue Greece at the end of 2009 when the debt-plagued country could no longer borrow on international markets.

The EU's involvement in the huge bailout, which was to provide 240 billion euros ($270 billion) in loans in exchange for drastic austerity measures and reforms, runs out at the end of this month, but IMF support was supposed to continue to March 2016.

Talks between Greece's radical-left government and its lenders have been deadlocked for five months over the payment of the final 7.2 billion euro tranche of the bailout, with talk also turning to an extension of the European help.

For the Greek government any extension of the bailout should be about kickstarting the country's devastated economy and not further austerity.

They also want an easing of the country's crippling debt burden, which officially stood at 312.7 billion euros, or 174.7 percent of gross domestic product, in March.

The international lenders have rejected a series of proposals from Athens, insisting on their own mixture of cuts and reforms.

Minister of state Nikos Pappas, who is close to Tsipras, said the counter-proposals would be "unacceptable to whichever Greek political party" was in power.

Bridging the gap

Alekos Flambouraris, another Tsipras minister, said Saturday that Athens would propose reworked measures that "bridge the gap", while also predicting that Greece's creditors would not be satisfied with the gestures, Greek media reported.

"You'll see they won't accept loosening budget (restrictions), or our proposal on the debt," he said of two main sticking points in the talks.

But the country's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, whose flamboyant style has irked many of his European counterparts, turned the tables by putting the onus on the leader of paymaster Germany to do a deal.

"The German chancellor has a clear decision to make on Monday," he wrote in an op-ed for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"On our side, we will come with determination to Brussels to agree to further compromises as long as we are not asked to do what the previous (Greek) governments have done: accept new debt under conditions that offer little hope for Greece to repay its debts," he wrote, without specifying the compromises.

Demonstrators around Europe on Saturday took to the streets to protest against spending cuts and austerity measures taken by their governments, and expressing solidarity with Greece.

source: interaksyon.com

Germany pledges P13.7 million to provide aid for Cebu, Bohol quake victims

Germany, the strongest European economy, has pledged P13.7 million in humanitarian aid for the benefit of earthquake victims in Cebu and Bohol.

The money will be coursed through Johanniter Unfallhilfe, a German humanitarian organization, which will provide assistance to victims, the German Embassy in Manila said in a statement.

"Germany stands shoulder to shoulder with the Philippines at this difficult time and stands ready to support you in dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake," the statement said, citing a letter from German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed to President Benigno Aquino III.

Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck also expressed their heartfelt sympathies to the people of the Philippines and their condolences to those that have lost loved ones.

"Please convey my sympathy to the families of the victims, our hearts go out to them at this time of sorrow. I wish those injured a speedy recovery," wrote Gauck in a separate letter to Aquino.

source: interaksyon.com

Merkel wins absolute majority in Germany

BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel clinched a surprise absolute majority in her winning bid for a third term in German elections Sunday, estimates on public television indicated.

Voters turned out in droves to reward Merkel, often called the world's most powerful woman, with another four years at the helm for steering them unscathed through the debt turmoil that engulfed the eurozone's southern flank.

But in one of the tightest races in German history, they punished her pro-business partner, the Free Democrats, kicking them out of parliament for the first time since 1949, according to preliminary results on two public television networks.

Merkel's stunning 42.5 percent score -- the conservatives' highest result since national reunification in 1990 -- means that she may become the only chancellor to govern without a junior partner since Germany's first post-war leader, Konrad Adenauer.

"Together we will do everything in the next four years to again make them successful years for Germany," Merkel told cheering members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin.

"The party leadership will discuss everything when we have a final result but we can already celebrate tonight," a beaming Merkel told supporters, including her chemist husband Joachim Sauer, a music fan who so rarely appears in public he is nicknamed "The Phantom of the Opera".

An upstart anti-euro party, AfD, appeared to fall just short of the five-percent hurdle to representation with their bid to tap into anger over German contributions to bailout packages for stricken eurozone partners.

Exit polls had initially pointed to an awkward left-right "grand coalition" between Merkel's Christian Democrats and their traditional opponents, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), which scored around 26 percent.

Merkel led a fractious grand coalition during her first term in 2005-2009, with the SPD's chancellor candidate this time around, Peer Steinbrueck, as her finance minister.

Political scientist Nils Diederich said Merkel had a tendency to bleed her coalition partners dry.

"You can compare Ms Merkel to a spider that feeds on the flies it captures," he told AFP.

"That is what she did to the Social Democrats in 2009 and that is what she is doing now with the FDP."

A physicist by training, Merkel is only the third person to win a third term in Germany after Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, the father of German unity.

If she serves at least until 2017, she will become Europe's longest serving female leader, besting Margaret Thatcher who was Britain's prime minister for 11 years.

While Merkel became Germany's most popular post-war chancellor, the eurozone crisis laid waste to the careers of leaders in hard-hit countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain and France.

In contrast to Merkel's austerity-driven response to the eurozone crisis, the SPD called for a bit more generosity and patience with nations as they pay back their debts.

But voters handed Merkel a landslide, fully endorsing her strategy of demanding biting reforms in exchange for funding bailouts.

The near success of the AfD, which advocates ditching the single currency and an "orderly dissolution" of the 17-member eurozone, sent a jolt through German politics, where a eurosceptic party has never gained a foothold.

In a last-minute appeal for votes at a Berlin rally Saturday, Merkel had urged voters not to succumb to the AfD's siren call.

"The stabilisation of the euro is not just a good thing for Europe but it is also in Germany's fundamental interest," she said.

Nearly 62 million people were called to the polls after a campaign many voters complained was largely superficial and personality-based.

Economic growth is steady, unemployment at below seven percent -- its lowest level in two decades -- and the political culture is dominated by a long post-war tradition of consensus rather than red-blooded jousting.

That left few issues to separate the main candidates.

"I think we have a good standard of living in Europe, and for me, this must remain stable. So, to me, voting for the extremes, on the left or the right, isn't an answer," Sister Elisabeth Bauer, a nun, told AFP as she cast her vote in Berlin.

The ecologist Greens party, the SPD's preferred coalition partner, scored around a disappointing eight percent in Sunday's poll.

And the far-left Die Linke, which has roots in former East Germany's ruling communist party, also tallied about eight percent but the SPD has repeatedly ruled out forming a coalition with it at the national level.

The brash, gaffe-prone Steinbrueck stumbled again in the home-stretch of the campaign with a front-page magazine photo of him making a surly middle-finger reply to a question on his limping candidacy.

He had zeroed in on a growing low-wage sector, but it was not enough to dislodge Merkel from the top job.

"The SPD did not lead a campaign devoid of content," Steinbrueck said late Sunday in a jab aimed at Merkel.

"But we did not achieve the result we wanted."

source: interaksyon.com

Germany votes with Merkel set for third term

BERLIN - Germany votes Sunday with Chancellor Angela Merkel poised to win a third term, making her Europe's only major leader to survive its financial crisis but potentially forced into governing with her main rivals.

After shepherding Europe's top economy through the debt turmoil, Merkel emerged more popular than ever due to her motherly reassurance as the crisis felled leaders in France, Greece, Italy, and Spain.

Pollsters suggest that voters will re-elect the 59-year-old, whose nickname "Mutti" ("Mummy") can seem incongruous with her other often-used description as the world's most powerful woman.

But the burning question will be with whom she will govern.

"Rarely was it so close. Merkel's coalition only has a razor-thin majority in the polls," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said, adding that many of the near 62 million voters only make up their minds at the last minute.

Merkel boasts her current center-right coalition has been Germany's most successful since reunification in 1990, enjoying a robust economy and a jobless rate of less than seven percent.

But her stated aim for her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to stay in power with its junior partners, the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), hinges on the smaller party's unpredictable fortunes.

"The continued governing by this coalition remains uncertain," Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist from Berlin's Free University said.

If the alliance fails to rally a ruling majority, Merkel could be forced back into the arms of her traditional rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), with whom she governed in a loveless "grand coalition" during her first term.

Under the watchful eye of Germany's European partners, a new eurosceptic party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) could also prove a wild card, either by clawing enough support to send MPs into parliament or wooing disgruntled centre-right voters away.

"For Chancellor Merkel the eurosceptics are becoming a problem," Spiegel Online commented on the eve of the vote.

"If the protest party manages to jump into the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), that may cost the black-yellow coalition power," it added, referring to the colour code for Merkel's current alliance.

Three polls in the run-up show the AfD, which advocates ditching the single currency and an "orderly dissolution" of the eurozone, falling below the five-percent hurdle needed to enter parliament.

But some analysts and pollsters have not ruled it out amid fresh Greek aid fears, stressing it is hard to assess the fledgling party's chances because it has no election track record and supporters may not own up to backing it in surveys.

Merkel again hammered home Europe's importance for Germany at a last-chance push for votes in Berlin Saturday, saying her country "can only do well in the long term if all of Europe does well."

"This is why the stabilization of the euro is not just a good thing for Europe but it is also in Germany's fundamental interest," she said, as a band belted out "Angie must save the world."

Supporters of stronger stimulus measures have pinned their hopes on the SPD whose gaffe-prone candidate Peer Steinbrueck, 66, has struggled to score points and still trailed Merkel's conservatives by 13 points in the last opinion poll.

A former finance minister in Merkel's 2005-2009 grand coalition, Steinbrueck has run into trouble during the campaign, most recently with a surly middle-finger front-page photo of him as a non-verbal reply to a question on his stumbling candidacy.

He has zeroed in on the growing low-wage sector and calls for an across-the-board minimum wage, while Merkel favors more flexible pay agreements hammered out between employers and unions, regionally and by sector.

In his final-day stump speech, he urged voters to remove "the most inactive government that has made the most reversals" in over two decades and mocked the famously ideologically flexible Merkel for "going round and round."

Polls open at 0600 GMT, with initial television estimates expected shortly after booths close at 1600 GMT.

source: interaksyon.com

Merkel: Euro debt crisis 'far from over'

The eurozone debt crisis is "far from over," even as reforms begin to show results, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in remarks to be broadcast Monday.

"The reforms that we've agreed on are starting to be effective," Merkel said in her recorded New Year's address.

"Nevertheless, we still need a lot of patience. The crisis is far from over," she said in a transcript of her addressed released early Monday.

Her comments differed from those of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who was quoted Thursday as telling the Bild newspaper, "I think we have the worst behind us."


They also differed from those of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who told France's Europe 1 radio Nov. 30, "The recovery for the entire eurozone will no doubt begin in the second half of 2013."

Merkel, 58, who faces an election to a third term in September, pointed to Germany's lowest level of unemployment since 1990's reunification of East Germany and West Germany, while the number of people employed had risen to record highs.

She said this meant "many hundreds of thousands of families have a secure future."

Merkel urged Germans to resist laying blame on economically weaker countries for the 3-year-old financial crisis that has made it difficult or impossible for some eurozone governments to repay or re-finance their debt without assistance.

"For our prosperity and our solidarity, we need the right balance. We need the willingness to perform and social security for all," she said in the recorded remarks. "The European sovereign debt crisis shows how important this balance is."

source: upi.com

German cabinet approves law allowing circumcision

BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet Wednesday passed a draft law to allow circumcision in Germany after a court said the rite amounted to grievous bodily harm, a ruling that caused international uproar.

The new legislation, which must now be passed by the German parliament, "makes clear that circumcision is possible in Germany," said Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger in a statement.

The ministry added the new text would "remove the legal uncertainty created by the judgement of the regional court in Cologne."

While considering a case brought against a doctor who had circumcised a Muslim boy, the court in the western German city ruled that the rite was tantamount to grievous bodily harm.

The decision united Jewish and Muslim groups in opposition and caused outrage from religious and political leaders in Israel and Muslim countries.

Diplomats admitted that the ruling proved "disastrous" for Germany's international image, particularly in light of its Nazi past.

Merkel was reported to have warned that Germany risked becoming a "laughing stock" if it banned circumcision.

The new bill stipulates certain provisos for a boy to be circumcised.

Among these conditions, the draft law stipulates the practice must be carried out "professionally" and "with the most effective pain relief".

An exception must also be made in individual cases if there are health risks, for example if the infant is suspected of being a haemophiliac.

Germany is home to about four million Muslims and more than 200,000 Jews.

source: interaksyon.com