After reunification in 1990, Chancellor Helmut Kohl sought to bring easterners into government, selecting Merkel to be minister for women's and youth affairs. Merkel was dubbed "Kohl's girl" by the German press. But she was ultimately the big winner in a subsequent campaign-finance scandal that undid Kohl's reputation. Among Germany's biggest post-war political scandals, the affair damaged several senior party figures, including Wolfgang Schaeuble, the current finance minister. Merkel took a hard line, ultimately urging the party, in an op-ed published in one of Germany's most widely-read newspapers, to cut ties with Kohl. Merkel, then 45, was elected party chairwoman in April 2000. In 2005, she led the CDU back into power, beginning her first term as chancellor.
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