The former German finance minister, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, yesterday blamed poor cabinet teamwork and hostile media briefings by government colleagues for his surprise resignation last Thursday.
Speaking to reporters outside his home in Saarbrucken, Mr Lafontaine made no direct criticism of the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, and accepted some responsibility himself for their failure to work together.
"The reason for my resignation is the poor team game we have played in the past months. Without a good team game, you cannot be successful," he said.
But the former finance minister, who also resigned as chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and gave up his seat in the Bundestag, insisted that the government's policy direction should not be changed.
"We are proud that we kept many promises. That is something new in politics because, all too often, voters have been disappointed because promises were broken. We wanted social justice, we wanted to make policies for working people and families. We set these policies in motion - and we find a great deal of support for them," he said.
Mr Lafontaine said that government colleagues should stand up for one another in public, instead of briefing secretly against ministers who espoused unpopular policies. He cited hostile briefings by the Chancellor's advisers against his own plans to overhaul the German tax system.
Social Democrat left-wingers blame the Chancellery Minister, Mr Bodo Hombach, for many of the hostile media reports that preceded Mr Lafontaine's departure. Mr Hombach is an advocate of a more business-friendly approach to economic policy and a keen admirer of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
"Things will obviously be different now. We have to move in a different direction. Gerhard Schroder will have different priorities, that's obvious," Mr Hombach said yesterday.
Mr Lafontaine yesterday ruled out a return to politics, adding that an assassination attempt in 1990 had convinced him that he would one day have to choose between the political stage and private life. He asked his Social Democrat colleagues to show understanding for his decision and he left the party with one, final message.
"The heart is not traded on the stock exchange but it has a place - it beats on the left," he said.
