...

Merkel said to reject economics minister's resignation bid

Other News Materials 8 February 2009 14:22 (UTC +04:00)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her deputy were reported Sunday to have turned down an offer from Economics Minister Michael Glos to resign, dpa reported.

The newspaper Bild am Sonntag said the chancellor and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted Glos to remain in office until general elections are held on September 27.

Glos, a member of Merkel's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), offered to resign on Saturday, but the offer was promptly turned down by his party boss, Horst Seehofer.

In a letter to Seehofer, the 64-year-old Glos cited his age and the need for the CSU, after disappointing state election results last September, to renew itself ahead of this year's national polls.

Merkel has not officially commented on the matter, but Steinmeier indicated the minister's action was related to internal quarrels within the CSU, one of three parties that form the ruling coalition in Berlin.

The CSU "is taking part in a steeplechase. I've no idea what the outcome will be," Steinmeier told national broadcaster ARD.

Sources within the CSU said Glos' poor relations with Seehofer apparently prompted him to write the letter.

Formally, Merkel is responsible for cabinet appointments, but in line with tradition, the parties in the ruling coalition propose replacements for their own members who leave the government.

Glos has headed the economics ministry since November 2005 when Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the CSU took office in a grand coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The CSU lost its absolute majority in Bavarian state elections last September and was forced to seek a coalition with the business- oriented Free Democrats (FDP).

Seehofer was elected party leader after the debacle and was also appointed Bavarian premier.

A member of the CSU since 1970, Glos was elected to parliament in 1976. Before moving to his cabinet job, he was leader of the CSU parliamentary group in Berlin.

As economics minister, Glos was often in the shadow of the popular Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, and indicated recently that he was growing tired of his job.

Opposition Greens Party spokeswoman Renate Kuenast said the government should let the minister go.

"It is damaging for Germany to hold on to an economics minister who has called 'get me out out here'," she said in a reference to the popular reality television series Jungle Camp.

Glos' decision to quit comes at a time when Germany is struggling to come to terms with a biting recession that has seen growth plummet, unemployment rise and credit dry up.

Last month the government announced a 50-billion-euro (65-billion- dollar) fiscal stimulus package to help Europe's biggest economy weather the economic downturn.

Latest

Latest