Merkel loses key ally in grand coalition

German Vice Chancellor and Labour Minister Franz Müntefering, who led the country’s Social Democrats into the coalition government headed by Angela Merkel, has resigned, citing family reasons.

On 13 November, Müntefering announced his decision to step down, to take effect on 19 November. Olaf Scholz, the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) parliamentary whip, will succeed him as labour minister, while Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will take over as vice chancellor.

Müntefering, who is 67 years old, cited his wife’s poor health (she is a cancer sufferer) as the sole reason for his decision. There was speculation, however, that his withdrawal from high political office may be linked with a number of blows that his SPD party has suffered in the grand coalition recently. The night before his announcement, Merkel’s CDU scrapped the minimum wage for postal workers, for which the SPD had been pressing and Merkel had earlier promised. 

When asked to comment on Merkel’s reliability, Müntefering answered: “Everyone can re-improve. Nobody is depreciated.”

Müntefering’s recent defeat in an internal party row with Social Democrat Chairman Kurt Beck over the payment of unemployment benefits may have further contributed to his weariness with political office. Beck, the minister-president of the Land  Rhineland-Palatinate and Müntefering’s indirect successor as SPD chairman, had positioned the Social Democrats in favour of longer payment of regular benefits to the jobless and against listing Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state-owned railway operator, on the stock exchange. 

Internationally, Müntefering rose to prominence when he applied the term ‘locusts’ to hedge funds and private equity firms that buy and sell companies without taking the effect on employment into account. 

All the partners in Merkel’s grand coalition government agreed that Müntefering’s resignation was detrimental to the coalition. Merkel said it was “a pity that we can’t continue working together”. However, she added that there were more important things in life than politics. 

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