Baku-APA. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has burnished her credentials as the most influential leader in the European Union (EU) by striving to save euro and championing further EU integration. In her home country, she is lauded for crisis-defying economic growth and cautiously guarding national interests when fighting the debt crisis, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
Though widely respected at home and abroad, she is as much hated because of her tough love in the "step-by-step" roadmap out of the crisis that centers on fiscal discipline, insisting on harsh austerity measures and painful reforms by peripheral eurozone members up to neck in debt.
Merkel is indeed at the pinnacle of her political career in 2012 as rolled up her sleeves for a third term next year, with a 97.94-percent support within her fellow Christian Democrats (CDU) and popularity ratings close to 70 percent.