GERMANY: The new SDP leader is already Germany's most popular politician, writes Derek Scally, in Berlin
At high noon in Berlin yesterday the flick of a pen set the clock ticking on Germany's new grand coalition.
Dr Angela Merkel, chancellor-elect and Christian Democrats (CDU) leader, signed the coalition agreement with Edmund Stoiber, leader of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU).
The third signatory, a far less familiar, bearded figure, was Matthias Platzeck, the freshly crowned leader of the Social Democrats.
He was voted in as party chairman on Tuesday with the approval of 99.4 per cent of party conference delegates, the highest leadership vote in 60 years and just two weeks after a political intrigue toppled outgoing leader Franz Müntefering.
By yesterday afternoon Mr Platzeck had already shot to the top of the Politbarometer, a kind of political Top of the Pops, as Germany's most popular politician.
Part of the reason for his popularity is that the new SPD leader is full of eastern promise: like Dr Merkel, he grew up in the former GDR in the state of Brandenburg, surrounding Berlin, where he is state premier. He displays a highly televisual youthful vigour at 51 and a freshness that is appealing to voters tired of the same old faces after six months of campaigning, electioneering and political horse-trading.
"I'm a typical Brandenburger with two feet firmly on the ground in good and bad times. That's how I will approach the tasks ahead of me, too," he said on Tuesday evening after the vote.
His no-nonsense style bodes well for co-operation in the grand coalition with fellow Brandenburger Angela Merkel.
His inaugural speech as SPD leader sent out hopeful signals, too; not just that he will outlast his predecessor's 20 months in the job, but that he can convince the SPD to accept the grand coalition, and the need for further change.
Like Dr Merkel and the CDU, Matthias Platzeck is not steeped in SPD history and tradition.
He has been in politics for 16 years but joined the SPD only a decade ago, bypassing the party's youth organisation and the dominant lawyer-civil servant ranks.
Platzeck has described himself in the past as "not a typical party person" and believes politics should be "less focused on ideology and be more about what's practicable".
"Platzeck may be best placed to reconcile the party's advocates of traditional, working-class values with supporters of further, Schröder-style reforms," said Prof Jochen Franzke, political scientist at the University of Potsdam.
Other observers suggest that Platzeck is also best placed to be a strong SPD candidate for chancellor at the next election.
As with Merkel, a party crisis threw him into the spotlight, although he had positioned himself into the wings. But former East Germans, or Ossis, suggest that if German politics changes with Matthias Platzeck and Angela Merkel, it won't be because of their communist childhoods.
"Ossis aren't better. They're just different," said Ms Maybrit Illner, a fellow East German and political talkshow host.
"You can see this very nicely with Merkel and Platzeck. Both are scientists, not pandering to the media, but contemplative and analytical."