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Merkel announces Cabinet line-up

BERLIN: German Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel completed her Cabinet line-up on Monday, naming a set of conservative ministers that combined former members of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's government with newcomers and confidants with critics. Ms. Merkel is set to lead a 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 Mr. Kohl guided the negotiation of the treaty that reunited Germany, to retake the ministry and become Germany's top security official. The Defence Ministry will go to Franz Josef Jung, a close associate of a leading Ms. Merkel rival within the Christian Democrats, Hesse State Governor Roland Koch. Annette Schavan, a former State Education Minister who pioneered efforts by some German States to bar Muslim teachers from wearing headscarves in the classroom, will get the Education portfolio. She is seen as close to Ms. Merkel. Another State Minister and rising star in the Christian Democrats, Ursula von der Leyen, will become Minister for Families. Von der Leyen, Ms. Merkel said, ``stands for the ability to combine career and family.'' Ms. Merkel's Chief of Staff will be Thomas de Maiziere, currently Interior Minister of Saxony State. — AP

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