Germany's centre-left Social Democrats have picked Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to run against conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year's federal election.
Steinmeier, who is also vice chancellor in Merkel's grand coalition, said the post of SPD party chairman would go to a former leader Franz Muentefering. Kurt Beck, a regional premier who'd been SPD chairman for two years, quit that role on Sunday citing was he called intrigues. Both Steinmeier and Muentefering are defenders of reforms of the SPD's ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder whose Agenda 2010 alienated some supporters. Surveys show a new far-left party, die Linke, on about 13 percent, with support for the Social Democrats eroded to between 20 and 26 percent, and with Merkel's CDU/CSU conservatives clearly ahead. Merkel has accused the SPD of being "unreliable" and said she instead favoured a future coalition with FDP liberals.
(Deutsche Welle)
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