On the other side of the North Atlantic, there are many conservative leaders, like Merkel, Cameron and Rajoy.
I wouldn't really describe Angela Merkel as "conservative" even in German/European context. She's more of a centrist, which means she would be a center-left politician in America. Her government did after all pass the first minimum wage law in the nation's history.
The AfD and the Pegida movement could be seen as German equivalents to the Tea Party though.
Why? Is Angela Merkel really a centrist or she is doing a centrist administration only because the Social Democrats are in the coalition?
Was the 2009-2013 administration during the black yellow coalition more "small government" than the 2005-2009 and 2013- administrations?
No, Merkel could be seen as responsible for the CDU's overall move to the center in the last 10-15 years, much to the dismay of the conservatives within her own party and irrespective of the CDU's coalition partner.
There's an old story circulating about Merkel that when she looked for a political party to join shortly after the communist government had been overthrown back in East Germany, she first chose to attend a SPD meeting. But the fact that everyone called themselves "comrade" there, reminded her to much of the old regime. So, she eventually ended up with the Democratic Awakening, a small group of former dissidents for which she quickly become Press Secretary. The Democratic Awakening never really had any electoral successes (winning only 0.9% in the 1990 East German election) and was eventually swallowed by the CDU. And this how she became a CDU member.
As for FDP vs. SPD as coalition partners... well, the FDP certainly would have vetoed a minimum wage law. The point is, Merkel herself
didn't veto a minimum wage law, even though the law itself was and still is criticized from within the ranks of her own party. She did veto (or let's rather say, she ignored) the FDP's calls for more tax cuts in her previous administration though.
Not that Merkel is said to have many ideological convictions personally... as described above, she's someone for whom it wouldn't have made much difference to join either the CDU or the SPD. For her, ruling from the center was always the safest bet that guarantees the most popularity and success.
