Social Democratic Party of Germany

The wife of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Minister of Education of the Brandenburg province, Britta Ernst (SPD), has resigned from that position.
So far, she has not given a reason for such a decision.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is backing Saturday's planned shutdown of the country's last three operating nuclear power plants, even though one of the smaller partners in his coalition government, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), is proposing to keep the reactors as an energy "reserve," reports DPA, quoted by BTA.

The country's ruling Social Democrats boast of their shift to directly electing their leader and of other 'democratic' changes - but a closer look reveals that most of the changes are fairly cosmetic.

Germany’s acting Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on March 8 that he would not be a member of the new government under conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel who will lead a coalition with his Social Democrats (SPD).

Social Democratic Party leader Martin Schulz announced his resignation, DPA reported. Shortly after, the party's leadership announced that it supported the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group Andrea Nahles for the post. Her candidacy will be voted on by party members on April 22.

The shock decision comes after senior members of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) pressured their leader in to waiving the post of foreign minister. 

It comes after Angela Merkel's conservatives and the SPD agreed to form a coalition government on Wednesday.

Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat (SPD) who is mayor of Hamburg, is set to become German Finance Minister in a new coalition government with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, German news agency DPA reported on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) negotiated through the night into Wednesday in a marathon final push to nail down a new coalition agreement, according to Reuters. 

Negotiators from the two blocs remained locked in talks at the headquarters of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), where they began meeting at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Tuesday.

Negotiators for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) reconvened on Monday to hammer out compromises on healthcare and labor policy, the stumbling blocks in the way of another "grand coalition."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) reached agreement on energy and agriculture on Feb. 3, but were still in dispute over healthcare during talks to form a government, more than four months after the election.