Nahles, the leader of Germany’s center-left Social Democrats, a junior party in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, is resigning after poor elections results. “I’m working on the assumption that the Social Democrats will now swiftly make the necessary personnel decisions and the grand coalition’s ability to act won’t be compromised,” Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told reporters. While the Social Democrats have managed to push through their agenda of improving social welfare and working conditions for millions of Germans, voters haven’t rewarded the party for it in the polls. Former party leader Sigmar Gabriel told the daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung that the Social Democrats needed a “detox” to prevent internal power struggles from further harming the party. A recent opinion poll indicated that the Social Democrats may not have hit rock bottom yet.

Source: Washington Post June 02, 2019 08:26 UTC