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.