The head of Germany’s Social Democrats, who has ambitions to be his country’s next leader, is thinking about donating his beard to charity, but is not quite sure. Kurt Beck, who has a strong claim to lead the SPD into next year’s national election, said he might shave off his beard to raise €1-million for charity.
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/ 14 November 2007
A leading centre-left figure in the government of Angela Merkel resigned on Tuesday, depriving the German leader of one of the linchpins of her fractious grand coalition. Franz Münterfering, a Social Democrat, stepped down as labour minister and vice-chancellor, citing personal reasons.
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/ 30 October 2007
It has been described as being as sacred to the Germans as sumo wrestling is to the Japanese or saunas to the Swedish. But the tradition of having no speed limit on Germany’s autobahns is under threat. The Social Democrats say the introduction of a speed limit would reduce both CO2 emissions and the accident rate.