MERKEL VS. SCHROEDER: Angelika Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats, the main German opposition party, is quoted today as saying: "It's my impression that the chancellor is slowly developing into a danger for Germany and [our] entire historical inheritance." As quoted in an article in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the sentence reads, in German, "Ich habe den Eindruck, dass der Bundeskanzler sich langsam zu einer Gefahr für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und das gesamte historische Erbe entwickelt.“ The Sueddeutsche gives disputes over Iraq as a context for the quote.

Looks like Merkel is underlining the CDU's insistence that Schroeder is not an attractive coalition partner. I suppose there's still hope: a slow development can be interrupted. Probably a better way of translating the verb she's using would be to say, "the chancellor is slowly turning into a danger," etc.