Free Republic

It’s been almost half a year since Germans went to the polls and completely disrupted the old guard of politics in that country. The Christian Democrats party (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered losses across the board and also saw their former partners in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) split away from them. At the same time, Alternative for Germany (AfD) made major gains, largely based on growing opposition to Merkel’s open borders policy regarding primarily Muslim migrants entering the country. Since that time, Merkel has been unable to form a majority coalition and the nation has been effectively left...

On Nov. 22, the German parliament elected Angela Merkel as the new chancellor. It could mark a seminal event. Ms. Merkel is the first female chancellor in Germany's history; the first leader who spent most of her life under Communist rule; and the first head of a coalition between the two major German parties since 1969. She takes over in a country that has been, in effect, without a government since May, when the outgoing chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, announced his intention to bring about new elections. Angela Merkel becomes chancellor at a moment of crisis for her country, poised between...

* The boat-building business is booming, with big backlogs for boats in the $80,000 to $300,000 price range. Why is this important? Prosperity. People buy luxury items when they've got the money to do so. This is a very positive economic-growth indicator.* A mid-sized U.S. insurance company has been issuing a record number of group employee-benefit packages for disability, accident, and other coverage to small companies. This is a sign of new- and small-business formation, and yet another indicator of economic growth. This corroborates the rise of household employment data, which has again been running well above the more traditional...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's main political parties sealed an agreement on Friday to create a coalition government of traditional rivals under the leadership of conservative Angela Merkel.

BERLIN, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Now that Germans are on the verge of getting what they wanted, they're beginning to have second thoughts. In last month's tight election and in recent opinion polls German voters have sent a clear message about the kind of government they prefer -- a consensus-driven "grand coalition" of the country's two largest parties. On Monday, three weeks after the vote, a deal was finally struck between Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD) that ends a political deadlock and paves the way for just such a coalition under conservative Angela Merkel. The response on...