A row over who should be Germany's next ceremonial president has deepened divisions in Angela's Merkel's right-left coalition and fuelled concern that it is too weak to tackle major new issues ahead of the autumn 2009 election. But neither party is ready to pull the plug on the government. Politics professor Gesine Schwan is campaigning to be Germany's next president. The Social Democrats nominated politics professor Gesine Schwan on Monday to stand against conservative President Horst Köhler in an election by the country's parliament scheduled for May 2009. The move to challenge an incumbent president who is standing for a second term is unprecedented in German politics and harbors risks for Angela Merkel's coalition of conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and center-left Social Democrats (SPD). German presidents perform largely ceremonial and apolitical duties but they do have some powers, which include signing legislation and formally disolving parliament. Presidents are voted indirectly by members of both houses of the German parliament.
A row over who should be Germany's next ceremonial president has deepened divisions in Angela's Merkel's right-left coalition and fuelled concern that it is too weak to tackle major new issues ahead of the autumn 2009 election. But neither party is ready to pull the plug on the government.
Politics professor Gesine Schwan is campaigning to be Germany's next president. The Social Democrats nominated politics professor Gesine Schwan on Monday to stand against conservative President Horst Köhler in an election by the country's parliament scheduled for May 2009.
The move to challenge an incumbent president who is standing for a second term is unprecedented in German politics and harbors risks for Angela Merkel's coalition of conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
German presidents perform largely ceremonial and apolitical duties but they do have some powers, which include signing legislation and formally disolving parliament. Presidents are voted indirectly by members of both houses of the German parliament.
No, it isn't, though it was usually small parties who did it, or such a move was pre-empted. I'm surprised such amnesiac idiocy could be signed by "SPIEGEL Staff". I collected it all to re-fresh their memories:
