Schroeder should quit as chancellor: brother

Expatica ^ | 9/27/05

[Uncle Joe Cannon]

Schroeder should quit as chancellor: brother

27 September 2005

BERLIN - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who is battling to stay in office after Germany's inconclusive elections earlier this month, was told to quit by his younger brother in a newspaper interview Tuesday.

"I wish he wouldn't subject himself to all this stress," said Schroeder's half-brother, Lothar Vosseler, in comments to Berlin's B.Z. newspaper.

Vosseler told the paper he had some advice for his older brother: "I think he should quit. He's done so much for his Social Democratic Party (SPD) that he can leave with his head held high."

Chancellor Schroeder, 61, stands in stark contrast to Vosseler.

Vosseler, 58, was unemployed for five years and in the past has held jobs as a sewers worker, a computer specialist, an apartment manager and even briefly as the captain of a tourist submarine at a Spanish resort.

Both men remain in contact and Vosseler calls Chancellor Schroeder by his nickname, Acker (the Plough), denoting the German leader's prowess as a semi-professional footballer.

Chancellor Schroeder's father was killed in Romania while serving as a soldier with Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht in 1944. His mother, Erika, who is now a spry 91, remarried and her second husband was Vosseler's father.

Schroeder's SPD was defeated in Germany's September 18 elections and will have 222 seats in the new parliament, compared to 225 for conservative challenger Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU).

Nevertheless, the Chancellor insists he will stay in office at the head of a grand coalition with Merkel's CDU/CSU because her bloc is comprised of two separate parties: the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU.

But Merkel insists she won the election and should be chancellor with Schroeder's SPD as junior partner.

Both Schroeder and Merkel will meet for a second round of exploratory talks on a possible coalition in Berlin on Wednesday.

DPA

[ncountylee]

"Vosseler, 58, was unemployed for five years"

Great economy!

[Berlin_Freeper]

Considering Shröder has been married four times, I doubt very much that he cares what his family thinks about anything.

[elhombrelibre]

"I think he should quit. He's done so much for his Social Democratic Party (SPD) that he can leave with his head held high."

This thinking is similar to those Democrats who keep praising the recent leaders of the Democratic Party. The party continues to shrink for nearly 25 years now and they're convinced it's got swell leadership. As Dukakis once said in a different context, "a fish rots from the head down."

[pcottraux]

He should go back to playing the piano!!!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.