German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder named a top Green as agriculture minister today and a senior Social Democrat as health minister following resignations over the outbreak of mad cow disease in Germany.
The chancellor named Ms Renate Kuenast, one of two Greens co-leaders, agriculture minister with new responsibilities for consumer protection, replacing Mr Karl-Heinz Funke, an old ally of Schroeder and a fellow Social Democrat who quit on Tuesday.
The BSE crisis has made it compellingly clear that we have to make several organisational, and not just personnel, changes, Mr Schroeder told a news conference.
Maintaining the delicate balance of his centre-left two-party coalition, Mr Schroeder also confirmed Ms Ulla Schmidt, a senior Social Democrat parliamentarian, would take on the health portfolio vacated on Tuesday by Greens politician Andrea Fischer. -Reuters