Free Republic

Schleswig-Holstein premier quits after Kiel vote debacle 18 March 2005 KIEL/BERLIN - The only woman ever to head a German state, Heide Simonis, announced Friday she is stepping aside as a consequence of her failure to be confirmed in office after four deadlock votes in the Schleswig-Holstein parliament. Simonis, a Social Democrat (SPD), informed her party faction on Friday that she was withdrawing her name as a candidate for the premiership. The move appeared to increase the likelihood of a grand coalition between the SPD and the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the state, a prospect which party leaders...

An almost Biblical saga of disappointment and betrayal has stunned Germany, and has left everyone scrambling to find the traitor who unseated Germany's only female premier. Find out why two diamond thieves owe a big debt to Osama bin Laden and how Hong Kong may become the next Bilbao. "Et Tu Brute!" What should have been a perfunctory German state election on Thursday transformed into a gripping political "who dunnit" with a plot line that merges James Bond, Julius Caesar and the New Testament. The question is, who is Judas? Or Brutus? In other words, which one of the 69...