Angela Merkel: Forged in the Old Communist East, Germany's Chancellor-in-Waiting Is Not like the Others

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Helmut Kohl, with typical oafishness, used to call Angela Merkel "das Madchen"--the Girl, his girl, his discovery. It was never as simple as that. Although she retained the look of a blackboard monitor deep into middle age, Merkel's girlhood was over long before Kohl became chancellor. Merkel is a product of communism; she embodies its aesthetics and its rigidities. She was 35 when East Germany was dissolved and her instincts, her distrust of men, her nose for conspiracy, had already been formed. Even her career seems to follow a very personal five-year plan.

As she moves closer to becoming the leader of Germany, with elections likely on 18 September, it is time to ask: how communist is Angela Merkel, the great white hope of Tony Blair? What did she get up to in the German Democratic Republic?

On paper, of course, Merkel's policies are new-look Continental conservative: she wants market reforms in the health system, she leans towards workfare, wants to use a hike in VAT to cut labour costs. She is suspicious of Vladimir Putin and fawning towards George W Bush. She could contemplate change in the Common Agricultural Policy. Barring a few issues, notably entry to the EU, she smacks of Blairism. Yet …