The German parliament, by withdrawing its confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the chancellor, on Friday and opening the way for an early election in three months, has added to the mountain of expectations on Angela Merkel, leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union.

People are looking to this stocky, uncharismatic pastor’s daughter who will turns 51 this month to pull the country out of its five-year stagnation, cure endemic unemployment, fix its bankrupt welfare state, mend its relationship with the US and help drag the European Union out of its institutional crisis.