Germany: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has resigned as chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in a high-risk gamble to keep his reform programme on track and to silence growing criticism within the party.
Mr Schröder has been under fire for weeks because of the ill-managed reforms and was widely expected to announce a cabinet reshuffle in the coming days. Instead he announced his "unwilling" resignation as party leader, a job he described as "the best job next to being the Pope".
"I will concentrate on my work as Chancellor and head of government," Mr Schröder said at a surprise press conference yesterday. He said it was a necessary step to protect "one of the most important reform processes of \ post-war history".
The decision to relinquish the reins of the SPD is a startling move for Mr Schröder, who worked his way into a position of unchallenged power in the party after the departure of Mr Oskar Lafontaine, the former finance minister and party chairman, in 1999.
It comes a year after Mr Schröder called on SPD members to make a "huge common effort" to modernise the party and back his reform package, known as Agenda 2010.
Rank-and-file members only grudgingly backed the reforms after Mr Schröder made his by- now annual threat to resign. With Germany now a chaotic reform building site with little sense of direction or progress, SPD members are furious that the reforms appear to be hitting the weakest in society.