Politics of Germany

Only seven of 1,500 refugees that Greece agreed to take back from Germany as part of a bilateral agreement in August have been returned, according to data from the German Interior Ministry.

The deal concerned refugees in Germany who had originally applied for asylum in Greece.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a close ally of Angela Merkel, won a tight race to succeed her as party leader Friday, seeing off a longtime rival of the German chancellor, reports AFP. 

The contest, which required a runoff vote to secure a 52-percent majority for AKK as she is known, is expected to increase the likelihood that Merkel will be able to see out her fourth term until 2021.

Germany's largest and dominant political party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is holding a crucial vote to elect a new leader this coming weekend after Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not run for the post and effectively started to wind down her political career, writes CNBC.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Dec. 4 awarded two Turkish immigrants with the German Order of Merit for their voluntary work and their services to the culture of remembrance.

A series of developments on the European level, and not just fiscal outperformance in Greece, influenced the Euro Working Group (EWG) decision last Thursday to give Athens the green light to suspend the reduction of 1.2 million pensions in a way that would not generate reactions in European capitals.

The woman campaigning to succeed Angela Merkel as head of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), said she may consider quotas to get more women in parliament, as she positioned herself for a party election in December.

She told journalists in Potsdam that now the British parliament and MPs of the remaining 27 EU member states are analyzing the deal.

"I am very happy that it was possible to come up with a proposal after long and not easy negotiations," Merkel said.

The German chancellor has not commented on resignations in the UK government after reaching the agreement, the AP said.

When it comes to political heavyweights in Europe, the German chancellor has long been top of the list.

Germany's interior minister on Monday forced out domestic spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen, whose controversial comments about racist far-right protesters threw Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government into crisis.

Angela Merkel's decision to step down from the leadership of the largest party in the European Union's leading member-state has increased uncertainty on the eve of a year that will see change throughout the bloc's major institutions.