December 4, 2011Euro zone players start critical week for currency
The euro zone is entering a critical week leading up to Friday's EU leaders summit in Brussels, which will focus squarely on avoiding a breakup of the 17-nation currency bloc.
Here are brief pen portraits of the four main players:
* ANGELA MERKEL - German chancellor (57):
-- Merkel won re-election as chancellor in 2009 and formed a coalition with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP). Although her CDU is closer politically to the FDP than to the Social Democrats (SPD), with whom she had previously governed, the coalition has been fractious and lost popularity.
-- Because of Germany's buoyant economy and strong public finances, Merkel is the dominant political leader in Europe, but she faces domestic constraints in her coalition and from an emboldened parliament, a powerful constitutional court and a conservative independent central bank, the Bundesbank.
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