GERMANY:German chancellor Angela Merkel has reclaimed the political centre for the Christian Democrats (CDU) and labelled her Social Democrat (SPD) grand coalition partner the red peril of German politics.
A confident and passionate performance proved to the last doubters at the CDU party conference in Hanover yesterday that, halfway through her term, Dr Merkel has her hand firmly on the rudder in Berlin and in her own party.
With her CDU rivals preoccupied with upcoming state elections, the German leader used her keynote speech to attack the SPD's new left-wing programme, which retains the aspiration of "democratic socialism".
"The political centre ground is here and only here," said Dr Merkel, drawing on her East German background to drive home her ideological argument.
"Socialism has done enough damage in Germany. Democratic socialism is a contradiction in itself [ that] ends in totalitarianism, whether one wants it or not."
Weeks after the SPD presented a new left-wing party programme, binning the decade-old Blair-Schröder "third way", the CDU has reclaimed the ideological centre.
For the first time, the CDU's party programme sees Germany as a "land of integration" - 40 years after the first Turkish migrants arrived - but it demands integration rather than multiculturalism.
The party has discarded its traditional family definition in favour of the idea that "family is where adults care for children", but it remains opposed to equal rights for married and same-sex couples.
It is the programme's foreign policy section that provides the most potential for conflict in the grand coalition. Unsurprisingly, the CDU still favours offering Turkey a "privileged partnership" rather than full EU membership.
On China, Dr Merkel has come under sustained attack from SPD politicians, who claim her decision to receive the Dalai Lama in the Berlin chancellery had damaged relations with Beijing.
In a cheeky retort, Dr Merkel said she was following a "value-driven" foreign policy in the tradition of former SPD leader Willy Brandt, with human rights concerns discussed openly rather than in back rooms or not at all.
"[ His] policy was rapprochement, not smarminess," she said. "What would Willy Brandt have thought of a public discussion about whether it is better for our country to engage in a public discussion on human rights or remain silent?"
Dr Merkel is hoping that this popular line, combined with the new CDU programme and continued economic growth, can guarantee her re-election in 2009.