TWELVE weeks after its election, followed by the longest
coalition negotiations in its history, Germany has a new
government at last. And although there was never any doubt that
Angela Merkel would continue leading it as chancellor, the
cabinet she chose contained a surprise: Germany’s new defence
minister will be Ursula von der Leyen, the first woman in that
job. Mrs von der Leyen (centre, above), who at 55 is four years
younger than Mrs Merkel, is now the most obvious member of Mrs
Merkel’s party, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union
(CDU), to run for chancellor when Mrs Merkel, who is now
starting her third term, steps down.  Mrs von der Leyen’s most
likely opponent would be Sigmar Gabriel (left, above), leader of
the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). Since the SPD’s poor
showing in the election (it got only 25.7% of votes, against
41.5% for Mrs Merkel’s camp), he has skilfully manoeuvred his
party into another “grand coalition” with Mrs Merkel, wrangling
concessions out of her in the process and