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