Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democrats (SPD) agreed on Monday that conservative leader Angela Merkel should replace him as German chancellor at the head of a coalition government, a party spokesperson said.
He said party members have approved by a large majority the deal that would make Merkel the first female chancellor in German history.
It followed three weeks of intense haggling after an inconclusive September 18 general election that left her Christian Democrats (CDU) narrowly ahead, but not by enough to form a coalition with their preferred free-market partners.
The new government’s first task will be to rejuvenate the battered economy, crippled by sluggish growth and chronically high unemployment, currently more than 11%.
According to reports citing sources close to the SPD, Schröder’s party will take the key ministries of foreign affairs, finance, labour and justice, as well as environment, aid and cooperation, health and transport.
The CDU and its Bavarian sister Christian Social Union (CSU) will also have eight cabinet posts — Merkel as chancellor, a minister of state at the chancellery, and the economy, interior, defence, agriculture, education and family ministries.
The CSU said formal negotiations to put the grand coalition — last seen in Germany in the 1960s — in place will begin next week.
Schröder will play no role in the coalition government of his SPD and the centre-right CDU, the head of the CSU said on Monday.
Edmund Stoiber is said to have told the leadership of the CSU that Schröder will not have a post in the new government.
Schröder’s own SPD have not commented on his future.
Schröder (61) became chancellor in 1998 at the head of a centre-left government and won re-election in a close-run vote in 2002. — AFP
