After weeks of tension, tantrums and trial balloons, Germans now know which ministers will govern them for the next four years, and roughly how they will do so. In the early hours of October 24th the three parties in the new centre-right coalition government that won September's federal election-the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its smaller Bavarian sibling, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP)-put the finishing touches on a 124-page agreement that promises tax cuts, more spending on education and a reform of health care. It is a "new beginning", declared Guido Westerwelle (pictured above), the new foreign minister, who led the fdp back into power after an 11-year absence.
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