Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's resignation as chairman of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) will deeply affect the distribution of forces within the German government and its slim "Red-Green" majority in Parliament. While it seems to be premature to speak, as some in Germany now do, of a "Twilight of the Chancellor" or to call Schröder's surprising step "the beginning of the end" of his tenure, it is perfectly correct to describe it as a dramatic loss of power.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's resignation as chairman of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) will deeply affect the distribution of forces within the German government and its slim "Red-Green" majority in Parliament. While it seems to be premature to speak, as some in Germany now do, of a "Twilight of the Chancellor" or to call Schröder's surprising step "the beginning of the end" of his tenure, it is perfectly correct to describe it as a dramatic loss of power.