Combative former labour minister Andrea Nahles is first woman to lead party in 155 yearsGermany’s centre-left Social Democrats have elected Andrea Nahles, a combative and outspoken former labour minister, as the first female leader of the 155-year-old party. “We’re breaking though the glass ceiling in the SPD,” Nahles said at the delegates’ meeting in the city of Wiesbaden. Germany’s finance minister and the SPD’s interim leader, Olaf Scholz, said electing a woman was a sign of long-overdue progress and a historic moment. Nahles vowed that the party would fight for social justice and welfare. Nahles summed up the party’s combative approach to the Merkel government at the time by telling journalists that “from tomorrow we’ll smack ’em in the face”.

Source: The Guardian April 22, 2018 15:45 UTC