A surgeon who was
adopted from a Vietnamese orphanage emerged Monday as the favourite to lead
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners after the embattled
party head stepped down.

Philipp Roesler and Germany PM Angela Merkel

Philipp Roesler, at 38 a rising star in the pro-business
Free Democrat party (FDP), is currently health minister in Merkel’s cabinet but
speculation is rife he will assume the FDP leadership after Guido Westerwelle’s
resignation.

The Tagesspiegel daily Monday cited party sources as saying
the married father of twin girls was set to replace Mr Westerwelle after the
FDP suffered a string of regional election disasters.

A heart and chest surgeon by training, Mr Roesler was
adopted as a nine-month-old baby by a German couple from an Vietnamese
orphanage.

He was brought up by his adoptive father, a career military
officer, as the couple split when he was just four.

A Westerwelle protege, Mr Roesler last year steered a
disputed set of health reforms through the German parliament that increased the
financial burden on patients in an attempt to address healthcare deficits.

Source: Reuters