Political clap of thunder in Berlin : the social-democrat Franz Müntefering, 67, announced, on November 13, 2007, that he would quit, as early as November, his double position of vice-president of the large coalition and of Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, for "family reasons" only. However, his resignation can also be explained by a certain political weariness, since the Minister endured two severe setbacks. (Ref. 070931)
First setback: the Employment Secretary couldn’t stand out against Kurt Beck, SPD chair, in the debate on unemployment benefits (ALg I). During the SPD Congress, at the end of October, in Hamburg, Kurt Beck had managed to get an overwhelming majority for his plan aiming at extending the length of allocation of unemployment benefits for seniors. SPD representatives had thus buried one of the most unpopular central dispositions of labour market’s reform carried out by the former chancellor, Gerh
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