Saturday February 7, 08:31 PM
German cabinet in limbo after finance minister's bid to quit fails
By Deborah Cole
BERLIN (AFP) - Germany's ruling coalition appeared in disarray Saturday after Economy Minister Michael Glos offered to resign only to be stopped by his own party leader, as the country suffers a crippling recession.
Horst Seehofer, leader of Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the powerful sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel, has asked Glos to remain in the government, a party spokesman said.
In Germany, the parties in the ruling coalition select cabinet ministers. Seehofer's refusal to allow Glos to exit the government leaves the ruling coalition in political limbo with seven months to go before a general election.
Glos offered to quit earlier Saturday in a letter to Seehofer, a spokesman for the economy ministry told AFP.
In the letter, leaked to the Bild newspaper, 64-year-old Glos cited as his reasons for stepping down his advancing age and a drive by Seehofer to change the face of the party and bring in new blood since a disastrous state election in September.
"Renewal, the ability to set the agenda and credibility are needed now more than ever," Glos said of the party.
But the CSU spokesman said Seehofer had assured the minister of his confidence in him and asked him to stay.
"I will discuss the reasons for his decision cited in his letter in a personal conversation with him," Seehofer said, according to his spokesman.
The developments came as more grim news hit Germany, with the finance ministry predicting the federal deficit would reach 60 billion euros (77.5 billion dollars) in 2010, compared to 11.5 billion in 2008, Der Spiegel weekly reported Saturday.
With elections fast approaching, the party has struggled to get its house in order since an historic drubbing in a Bavarian state poll last September.
Merkel is running for re-election in September this year, and although her personal popularity rating remains high, the same cannot be said of the CSU, whose votes she needs to win.
The conservatives are hoping to garner enough votes to be able to jettison their current "grand coalition" partners, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), and govern with a party with an ideology closer to their own.
Since the economic crisis began, Glos has been largely sidelined, perhaps due to differences with Merkel. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck -- from the SPD -- has generated far more headlines.
A leading figure in the CSU, the sharp-tongued Glos has repeatedly challenged the chancellor to cut taxes even after she had categorically rejected the proposal.
But when Merkel did an about-face last month, unveiling a 50-billion-euro (66-billion-dollar) stimulus package full of tax relief, he was kept far from the television cameras.
Glos was an influential figure in the conservatives under former chancellor Helmut Kohl and is known as a fast learner who can rapidly shift focus. He became economy minister in 2005 when CSU chief and failed chancellor candidate Edmund Stoiber turned it down.
He is also known for viciously baiting his rivals, and infamously branded former foreign minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens "a pimp" during a parliamentary hearing over an illegal visa scandal when he was party whip.
"My work as minister for the economy and technology has been the high point of my political life," Bild cited his resignation note as saying on its website.
"First and foremost it was important to me to implement quickly effective measures in the financial and economic crisis that also carried my signature," he said.
Bild said Glos had informed Merkel, in Munich for an international security conference, that he was quitting. The ministry spokesman said he was unable to confirm this.
Merkel is expected to shed few tears if Glos does leave.
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