GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel has overtaken her predecessor Gerhard Schröder and her mentor Helmut Kohl to become the most popular German leader in over two decades, just two months after taking office.
Dr Merkel has emerged as the most popular politician in Germany in two important polls with 85 per cent of those quizzed by Der Spiegel magazine happy with her work while one in two are happy with her grand coalition government.
Political observers attribute the poll results to surprise at how quickly she has got to work on domestic and foreign policy and relief that her neo-liberal policies are on ice and that Germany has a new, functioning government after six months in limbo.
"People love the painful expressionlessness of [ Merkel's] public appearances. There's a prevailing relief at the changeover from theatrics to matter-of-fact," wrote sociologist Heinz Bude in Die Zeit newspaper.
He said her sober style extends to her cabinet of politicians mostly born in the 1950s. "With Merkel, the neo-realists are at the rudder."
The surprise at Merkel's performance is palpable in the German media, which was poised to record gaffes similar to those of Schröder's first months.
There is surprise too among the Social Democrats (SPD), forced to share power with the Christian Democrats after September's inconclusive election result. The parting shot of former SPD leader Franz Müntefering to Dr Merkel in parliament last summer was "You can't do it!"
Now he swaps jokes with Dr Merkel on the cabinet bench in the Bundestag, and even described a recent cabinet retreat lead by the chancellor as "very nice indeed".
Germany's new leader has impressed with a series of impressive foreign visits that gave new contours to German relations with Poland, Russia, and the US.
Now she may be in a position to play an important mediating role in the nuclear stand-off with Iran. According to Der Spiegel magazine, she told US President George Bush after returning from Moscow that she would work to involve Russia more directly in the search for a solution with Tehran.
Her new approach will feature in today's talks in Versailles between Dr Merkel and French President Jacques Chirac, days after he said France would use its nuclear arsenal to counter any terrorist attacks on its territory. His remarks amazed Dr Merkel.