When she first came to power, Angela Merkel was heralded as Germany's Thatcher: a trail-blazing female leader who would shake up the country's traditional, male-dominated politics. Yet in their approach to government, they are as different as day and night.
At a campaign rally in Münster's handsome city square, the party faithful of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have gathered respectfully beneath the gilded clocks of the cathedral. Although the 55-year-old Chancellor's big theme is decisiveness e_SEnD she and the CDU have it, their rivals do not e_SEnD her listeners take instruction, not inspiration.
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