An interruption from the floor briefly flustered Angela Merkel in a parliamentary debate on Nov 23. Had the German chancellor told the Bundesbank she wanted growth in Europe, challenged an opposition deputy - a jibe at the apparent policy contradiction with the Bundesbank's mandate to fight inflation.
Merkel hesitated momentarily, then answered: "It's in my character to be consistent, whether I'm speaking with you, with party colleagues, with the Bundesbank or with my European partners. I am not duplicitous. That is my advantage."
That response, delivered in the midst of Europe's debt crisis, revealed simultaneously Merkel's biggest difficulty and her core strategy, Reuters reported. Germany's 26 EU partners are impatiently urging Merkel to take a lead and act fast. Wherever she travels outside Europe, she is faced with the expectation that Germany, Europe's economic power, should fix the euro zone.
The weight of expectation is particularly immense before an EU summit this Thursday and Friday. Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski captured the wider mood in a speech in the shadow of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate on November 28.
"I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity," he said, alluding to Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland that began World War Two.
But every foreign partner wants something different.
And within Germany, Merkel's coalition partners are watching closely to make sure she doesn't agree to measures being sought by the United States and Britain and by many financial market participants - common euro zone bonds and a financial backstop role for the European Central Bank as lender of last resort.
The 57-year-old chancellor finds herself in a position that she didn't choose but is beginning to enjoy, those close to her say. She must decide. Read more. (Subscription required.)
