Free Republic

Vegetable farmers in Brandenburg are worried about the future of the famous Spreewald gherkins, as the new national minimum wage has driven prices up.Spreewald gherkins aren’t just any old gherkins. They hold a certain status in Germany, to the extent that they are designated by the EU as a Protected Geographical Indication, designed to protect local specialties. And yet the greatest threat to their survival isn’t coming from international competitors, but from German politicians. Producers say that the national minimum wage introduced by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as part of the coalition agreement is forcing prices up. “More than...

The new family minister has called for the introduction of a 32-hour working week for parents of young children, stating her plan would be funded by taxpayers. Manuela Schwesig said on Friday that mothers and fathers with children under the age of three should not work the current 40-hour week. […] But according to the Berlin-based German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the plan from the center-left SPD would cost taxpayers €140 million ($191 million) a year. …

More than 65,000 parents and teachers in southern Germany have signed an online petition against plans to teach children about homosexuality in school. The petition, which by Thursday had collected over 65,700 signatures, wants to lobby parliament to sink plans in the state of Baden-Württemberg to make teachers talk to pupils more frankly about homosexuality. The initiative, by Baden-Württemberg’s ruling regional Green/SPD coalition, wants to include the aim “acceptance of sexual diversity” in the curriculum so that children are told about different lifestyles and relationships at a young age. But it has met strong resistance from teachers and parents. …

Voters in Germany's most populous state handed a resounding victory to the centre-lefton Sunday, dealing a heavy blow to Angela Merkel's conservatives in what was interpreted as a backlash against the chancellor's European austerity campaign. Exit polls on Sunday night in the North Rhine-Westphalia election showed Hannelore Kraft, who had led the state's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in a coalition with the Greens, had soundly beaten her Christian Democrat (CDU) rival Norbert Röttgen, Merkel's environment minister. The SPD secured 39% of the vote to the CDU's 26% in what amounted to the worst result in the state for the conservatives...

SPD releases surveillance images of firebomb suspectPosted: 1:42 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012 **SNIP** The face of the suspect cannot be seen but police are hoping someone will recognize the suspect from what the person is wearing. Police described the suspect wearing a blue-hooded jacket with a grey-hooded sweatshirt, a baseball cap, a black mask covering the face below the eyes, blue jeans, dark shoes and black gloves. A white logo was on the black bag the suspect was carrying.

A Seattle police officer was shot to death and another officer was wounded late Saturday night while conducting a traffic stop in the city's Central District neighborhood. The officer who died was a veteran of the department, and the woman who was wounded is a student officer in training, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said

One day after Germany's Social Democrats leaked the news that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be the party's candidate for chancellor, SPD leader Kurt Beck resigned in frustration. Party bigwig Franz Müntefering may take over. For much of the last year, Germany's Social Democratic Party has been stumbling from crisis to crisis with plummeting membership and abysmal popularity. On Sunday, party leader Kurt Beck finally took the last move available to him: He stepped down. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Beck's decision from a SPD leadership retreat in the small town of Werder, located just outside of Berlin. Steinmeier said...

Crippled by record unpopularity and uncharismatic, rudderless leadership, Germany's oldest political party has erupted into open revolt over the hot-button issue of welfare reforms. SPD, Germany's major mainstream Leftwing party, pushed through controversial liberalising reforms several years ago under the chancellorship of Gerhard Schroeder. But the reforms, which made it easier to sack workers and reduced unemployment benefits, have now come back to haunt the party, with its leading left-wingers demanding centrist economic policies be scrapped. The SPD, which governs in a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, is currently at a historic low in polls. Since the...

BERLIN - Soaring oil prices combined with fears about energy security and climate change are softening Germans' hostility towards nuclear energy, a new survey showed on Wednesday. The results provide fodder for members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) who have in the last few weeks have renewed their calls for a rethink of the planned phase out of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors by 2021. The Forsa poll for Stern weekly magazine showed that voters in Germany, Europe's biggest power market, were now evenly divided on the question of whether some of the plants should be allowed to...

A new opinion poll puts Germany's Social Democratic Party on its lowest-ever rating. The slump in the party's standing is due to a U-turn by SPD leader Kurt Beck -- who only 13 percent of voters now want as chancellor -- on forming alliances with the Left Party. The bad news just keeps coming for Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party -- and for its leader, Kurt Beck. After Beck's recent U-turn on cooperating with the Left Party -- a group made up of former communists and disgruntled ex-Social Democrats -- and the SPD's disasterous failure to form an alliance with...

THOSE who have a problem with workers’ representatives occupying half of German companies’ supervisory boards can blame the British. The British instituted the current scheme after World War Two. The requirements providing trade union bosses with boardroom seats were first enacted in Berlin’s British Zone in the late 1940s. The German law which underpins its current system of Mitbestimmung, or “co-determination”, turned 30 last month. Chancellor Angela Merkel was on hand to help celebrate the edict, which gives workers’ representatives half the seats on supervisory boards at some 750 German corporations, including almost all the companies listed on the main...

BERLIN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), Matthias Platzeck, resigned Monday for health reasons after only five months in office, proposing that his deputy Kurt Beck replace him. "I overestimated my physical capabilities," said Platzeck at a news conference. He is also state premier of Brandenburg and party leader in that state. He was elected chairman of the SPD in November 2005 to replace Franz Muenterfering, who is the deputy chancellor and labor minister of the grand coalition government formed by his party and the Christian Democrats Union headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel....

Germany may finally know the cast of politicians that is going to take over the reins of power, but chancellor-designate Angela Merkel has her work cut out for her. She is now surrounded by a motley crew of power hungry egos just waiting for her first mistake to pounce. To succeed, she'll have to be part lion tamer and part tight rope walker.

Angela Merkel's new coalition government will work toward stronger ties with the United States and scale back on the close relationship outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, say officials from both parties in the future Cabinet. The officials say that foreign policy has not been a divisive issue in the coalition negotiations between Mrs. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Mr. Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) since last month's inconclusive election. But even though they insist there will be no "major substantive change" under Mrs. Merkel's leadership, they say Berlin will correct Mr. Schroeder's excesses in...

By Noah Barkin and Claudia Kade BERLIN, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Conservative leader Angela Merkel will become Germany's first woman chancellor under a deal with Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) to break a post-election deadlock, sources said on Monday. Three weeks after voters gave Merkel's conservatives an unexpectedly narrow win over Schroeder's SPD in a federal election, senior sources from both parties said an agreement had been struck that should pave the way for a power-sharing cabinet. According to a senior SPD source, the SPD is poised to get the foreign, finance, justice and labour ministries in a new coalition...

PREOCCUPIED with running his internet cafe in the historic German city of Dresden, Ingo Nessman does not usually take much interest in politics. But today he will relish the chance of punishing Gerhard Schröder in a vote that could finally loosen the chancellor’s grip on power after two weeks of post-election stalemate.“I’ve had it up to here with this election,” said Nessman, wiping down his stainless steel bar. “His behaviour is abysmal and I hope he doesn’t make it.” Tito Gärtner, 35, shopping near the city’s cathedral, did not have any time for the chancellor either. “I hope we give...

Conservative leader Angela Merkel and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder failed to resolve their battle over who should lead Germany's new government but agreed to meet again to explore forming a right-left coalition to steer efforts to revive Europe's largest economy. Both Merkel and Schroeder have laid claim to building Germany's next government after neither party won a clear majority in parliamentary elections Sunday, leaving the country, the world's third-largest economy, in political crisis. The deadlock means Germany could spend weeks without leadership at a time when it desperately needs clear direction to push through badly needed economic reforms. Germany also wants...

The German educational system marches on. In a memorable television appearance alongside other top candidates Sunday evening following the election, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced his next major reform project: the Math Reform! And he immediately explained how it would work: 34% of the votes = an absolute majority for Chancellor Schröder! "Nobody but myself is capable of putting together a stable government. Nobody but myself!" ['Nobody But Myself!'] Fellow guests and viewers at home were shocked and awed by the statesman's mind-expanding theories. "I really don't know what you've been doing before the show …" suggested Free Democratic leader Guido...

Schröder could stay as chancellor until poll in new yearThe chances of Angela Merkel becoming Germany's next chancellor suffered a setback yesterday when the Greens appeared to rule out joining a coalition with her conservative CDU party.With the country in political gridlock after Sunday's inconclusive general election, speculation was growing last night that the chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, would try to force new elections early next year. A day of political horse-trading left Europe's most populous country facing months of confusion. No government is likely to emerge until November at the earliest. Both the main party leaders announced that they had...

Voting began in Germany's closely fought election today with millions of undecided voters holding the key to a result that will have major implications for economic reform in Europe. Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat (CDU) chancellor, is expected to emerge as Germany's first woman chancellor, displacing Gerhard Schroeder who has led Germany for the past seven years at the head of a centre-left government of Social Democrats and Greens. A provisional result is expected to be announced in the early hours of Monday morning. The final opinion polls published on Friday gave Merkel's centre-right coalition with the liberal Free Democrats...