Jacob Christensen

This may not have reached the transatlantic media yet, but today the SPD accidentially lost its chairman Franz Müntefering.

The party’s executive committee voted on candidates for the post as General Secretary (which is less prominent as one might think, the G.S.’s main task is to organise electoral campaigning; it’s the Party Secretary which deals with the day-to-day workings of the party organisation) and the left-wing candidate Andrea Nahles won against Münteferings candidate Kajo Wasserhövel.

It was already considered a minor scandal that Nahles – who is the most prominent left-winger in the party – ran against the candidate put forward by the party chairman, but her victory led Müntefering to announce that he would resign his post at the party convention in two weeks’ time. Müntefering also said that he would probably not enter the new cabinet.

This leaves the SPD without a chairman and a vice-chancellor for the incoming government and German media are guessing intensely about possible successors.

Kurt Beck (PM in Rheinland-Pfaltz) and Matthias Platzeck (PM in Brandenburg) have been mentioned but unsurprisingly, no-one has yet declared any direct interest in taking up the position.

Meanwhile in Munich, rumours have it that Edmund Stoiber are reconsidering his position. If the chairman of the SPD – when the party elects one – is not going to be a member of the new cabinet, the he allegedly does not want to leave his post as PM in Bavaria.

In other words: Just another day at the office.