WRAP Merkel presents CDU govt nominations plus coalition talks begin
(17 Oct 2005) POOL 1. Various exteriors of SPD headquarter Willy Brandt Haus 2. Various of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder waiving and walking 3. Various of German officials enter building 4. Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel waiting in lobby of building 5. SPD leader Franz Muentefering 6. Muentefering and Merkel walking away APTN 1. Various exteriors of the Reichstag Parliament Building 2. Various of Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel and Christian Social Union party leader Edmund Stoiber arriving for press conference 3. Pan of audience 4. SOUNDBITE: (German) Angela Merkel, German Chancellor: "For the post of Interior Minister, we will nominate Wolfgang Schaeuble. His competence and experience is widely known. And he is going to use them to master the challenges of inner security, fighting the terror threat, but also dealing with the world cup next year." 5. Cutaway of former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble (he held the job under former Chancellor Helmut Kohl) 6. SOUNDBITE: (German) Angela Merkel, German Chancellor: "We are going to start the coalition talks today. We have prepared for that in our parliamentary meeting. We will meet the Social Democrats in their headquarters (Willy Brandt House). The second meeting will be in our headquarters. You can see by location of the meetings that we seriously intend to know each other, that the negotiations will be dealing with the essence of the problems of the country and that we intent to translate the election results into a capable government." 7. Cutaway of people observing 8. Various of photo opportunity with Merkel and Stoiber STORYLINE: German Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel completed her Cabinet lineup on Monday in Berlin - naming a team of conservative ministers that combined former members of Germany's last center-right government with newcomers to the national stage. Merkel is to lead the coalition with outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats, who have secured equal representation at the Cabinet table. That left the Christian Democratic leader with seven posts to fill. She proposed former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble - who under former conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl guided the negotiation of the treaty that reunited Germany - to return to the ministry. As the country's top security official, he will have a leading role in efforts to crack down on supporters of terrorism and Islamic radicals within Germany. Merkel said: "His competence and experience is widely known. And he is going to use them to master the challenges of inner security, fighting the terror threat, but also dealing with the world cup next year." Schaeuble became his party's chairman after Kohl's 1998 election defeat, but was replaced with Merkel in 2000 amid fallout from a party financing scandal surrounding Kohl. He has used a wheelchair since being paralysed from the waist down when a mentally disturbed man shot him at a rally in 1990. Merkel's conservative bloc also includes the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union, which got two Cabinet seats under the preliminary deal last week that cleared the way for Merkel to become Germany's first female leader. Party leader Edmund Stoiber, who unsuccessfully challenged Schroeder in 2002, had already announced that he would become economy and technology minister. Merkel's conservatives and her centre-left partners, the Social Democrats, met later on Monday to start hammering out the details of a new governing coalition she hopes will lead Germany out of its economic slump. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
