** FILE ** Then Chancellor-elect Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, left, laughs after the signing ceremony of the coalition contract with the Greens and a toast with champaign in Germany's former capital Bonn in this Oct 20, 1998 file photo. Then Green's leader Joschka Fischer, center, and then Social Democratic party chairman Oskar Lafontaine share the laugh. Schroeder will be succeeded after seven years as German chancellor by Angela Merkel, when she is being elected by the German parliament on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005. (AP Photo/Roberto Pfeil)