GERMANY: Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) moved quickly to halt the growing coalition chaos in Berlin yesterday when Franz Müntefering, who resigned as party leader on Monday, said he was still prepared to serve in the next government.
Mr Müntefering's decision to remain on as vice-chancellor and labour minister in a so-called grand coalition under Dr Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU) has saved ongoing coalition talks for now.
however, six weeks after voters went to the polls Germany still doesn't have a government and it is increasingly unlikely that a new administration will be in place as planned in two weeks, or that it will hold together for more than two years.
The aftershocks of the September election continued to reverberate in Berlin yesterday.
Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber, leader of the CDU sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), announced yesterday that he would stay on in Munich rather than become the new economics minister in Berlin.
"The course of the SPD and its reliability is not so clear anymore," Mr Stoiber said yesterday.
Meanwhile, over at SPD headquarters it was becoming clear yesterday that Monday's shock departure will have huge consequences for the party in coalition talks and beyond.
Mr Müntefering resigned after just 19 months as party leader after the Vorstand, the 45-member executive committee, rejected his candidate for general secretary and elected leading left-winger Andrea Nahles instead.
The vote was a revolt by left-wingers, who felt left out of coalition policy-making and under-represented in the future cabinet. It was also a protest from younger politicians concerned that the older generation was clinging to office.
Leading left-wingers admitted yesterday that they may have gone too far and Ms Nahles said she may not even take up her position. "I don't feel very good about myself today, but we'll have to see what happens," she said.
Gernot Erler, an SPD foreign policy expert and leading left-winger, called the vote a "misunderstanding", saying: "We simply wanted a multi-polar system of checks and balances at the head of the SPD."
Right-wingers attacked the "stupid drivel" of their party colleagues yesterday. Hans-Joachim Hacker, a deputy parliamentary leader, said: "The entire executive committee should now consider its own position."
The SPD is expected to announce a new leader, perhaps this morning. Even if the party wasn't at war with itself, there is no figure with Mr Müntefering's authority to unite, a cause of huge concern in the CDU.
Party colleagues were sceptical that the coalition would take office at all, suggesting that the SPD's internal quarrels had doomed the new government. Speculation is already circulating that if it does, the CDU is considering consolidating its position by calling a fresh general election to coincide with three state elections next March.