Germany's "Teflon Angie" cruises through crisis

By Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Call her "Teflon Angie". German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in the midst of what, on the face of it, should be one of her toughest stretches since coming to power in 2005.

The economy is in a tailspin, her cautious reaction to the financial crisis has been widely criticized. And this week she made the latest in a series of abrupt policy reversals, agreeing to include tax cuts in a new German stimulus package that as recently as last month she had argued was unnecessary.

But with less than nine months to go until the next federal election in Germany, Merkel's popularity remains high and her chances of a new four-year term look brighter than ever.

This strange dichotomy was highlighted in two new surveys from the Forsa polling group this week.

The first showed that 63 percent of Germans believe her government's stop-start response to the crisis has been inadequate. The second showed the lead of Merkel's conservatives over their chief rivals and coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), rising to a robust 14 percentage points.

If the election were held now, the poll showed, Merkel would have enough votes to ditch the SPD and form her center-right coalition of choice with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

A separate "Politbarometer" poll for ZDF public television on Friday showed Merkel leading Frank-Walter Steinmeier, her foreign minister and designated SPD challenger, 55 to 32 percent in a theoretical vote for chancellor.

In what has become a huge source of frustration for the SPD, bad news just hasn't stuck to Merkel -- a resilience reminiscent of the original "Teflon President" Ronald Reagan and Britain's "Teflon Tony" Blair, before Iraq hurt his image with voters.

"Merkel is what the Germans want -- no more Wilhelm II and certainly no Fuehrer", or strong leader, Josef Joffe, publisher and editor of respected German weekly Die Zeit, told Reuters.

"They want somebody who rolls with the punches, doesn't impose her power and generally demands little from them."

EMBARASSING REVERSALS

That is a harsh, but in some ways apt, description of Merkel's performance over the past few months.

As her counterparts in Britain and France moved aggressively, in words and actions, to shore up their economies, she opted for a wait-and-see approach to the crisis that has led to a series of embarrassing reversals -- first on a rescue for banks and recently on a second stimulus package and tax cuts.

Yet her political prospects look bright for a number of reasons, despite expectations that Germany will suffer its deepest recession this year since World War Two.

First, she has tied her own policy approach closely to that of SPD Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, making it difficult for her challenger Steinmeier and the broader SPD to openly criticize her without shooting themselves in the foot.