International News

BERLIN, July 14, (APP/AFP) – Pragmatic,
childless pastors’ daughters with killer instincts who were long underestimated by their blustering male peers — the parallels between new British Prime Minister Theresa May and Germany’s Angela Merkel are striking at first glance.
But analysts warn that resemblance may mask more fundamental
differences that will complicate talks on Britain’s divorce from the EU, pitting its newest leader against its longest-serving.
May took office Wednesday as Britain’s second woman to occupy 10
Downing Street after Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” with whom both she and Merkel have frequently been compared.
Like May, who was depicted this week in a Times cartoon on a
blood-stained carpet surrounded by erstwhile rivals with daggers in their backs, Merkel’s rise also came after years lying in wait until the time was ripe to snatch the crown.
“Beyond being surrounded by immature men who magically commit public
harakiri, what May seems to share with Merkel is the caution, the general aura of biding her time,” Constanze Stelzenmueller of the Brookings Institution told AFP.
“There’s also a degree of seriousness about May that I think she
shares with Merkel, and after the bonfire of the vanities in the Tory party, that now seems particularly appealing.”