BERLIN, 1 December 2005 — Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed yesterday her new government would not be blackmailed by kidnappers holding a German woman in Iraq and called terrorism a threat to core values of freedom, tolerance and respect.
At the outset of her first major speech to parliament since replacing Gerhard Schroeder as German leader last week, Merkel focused on the case of a German archaeologist held hostage in Iraq since Friday and threatened with death.
“This government, this parliament will not let itself be blackmailed,” Merkel said, calling international terrorism one of society’s biggest challenges.
“It (terrorism) is directed at everything that is important to us, at the core of our civilization. It is directed against our entire value system.”
Militants holding 43-year old Susanne Osthoff have said they will kill her unless Germany stops cooperating with the US-backed Iraqi government, according to a tape received by a German television station.
The kidnapping, the first of a German citizen in Iraq, has presented Merkel with her first major test since becoming the country’s first woman chancellor last Tuesday.
Merkel has vowed to improve relations with the United States after Schroeder clashed with Washington over the Iraq war.
But that may prove more of a challenge after Osthoff’s capture and as questions mount in Germany about US tactics in its war on terrorism and its handling of detainees.
Merkel sits at the top of an unwieldy “grand coalition” that combines her conservatives with their traditional rivals, Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD).
