Angela Merkel faces multiple challenges in her fourth term

Angela Merkel has returned to the German parliament’s governing benches to get to work on an in-tray overflowing with domestic and geopolitical problems after six months of fraught coalition building following September’s federal elections.

Having brought to an end the longest power hiatus in Germany’s postwar history, Merkel has to work with a diminished majority in her fourth term as chancellor to find solutions to immediate challenges, such as the threats from import tariffs from an unpredictable US president and calls for structural reforms to the eurozone’s financial system from France’s president, Emanuel Macron.

In addition, Merkel has to find long-term answers to the rise of the nationalist right, and a debate about growing social inequality in Germany’s booming economy.

Merkel was sworn into office on Wednesday afternoon after receiving 364 out of 709 votes in the first round of voting in parliament – nine more than required to gain an absolute majority, but also 35 fewer than if all the members of her next governing coalition had cast their ballot in her favour.

Source: theguardian