Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) rushed yesterday to set aside a leadership crisis that has threatened crucial coalition talks by nominating a state premier from eastern Germany as their new party chief.

After a hastily called SPD meeting late on Tuesday, the 51-year-old leader of the state of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck, said he would run for the post of chairman at a party congress later this month.

Platzeck was expected to be formally nominated at a meeting of the party executive starting late Wednesday (local time). He would then have to be approved by the full party at a congress in mid-November.

If confirmed, he would replace veteran Franz Muentefering, who shocked his center-left party on Monday by announcing plans to step down from the key post, a move that threatened to disrupt efforts to form a government with the conservatives.

"We want negotiations on building a government to move ahead swiftly," Platzeck told reporters.

Platzeck, who could become the first SPD leader from the former East Germany, is seen as a unifying force to heal a rift between the party's left wing and more centrist elements. Conservative leader Angela Merkel, who is chancellor-designate, is also an easterner.

Current talks between the Social Democrats and the conservative Christian Democrat and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) alliance aim to forge a right-left "grand coalition" after the two sides almost tied in a September 18 general election.

But Muentefering's resignation prompted the influential conservative premier of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, to bow out of the government, in which he had been due to serve as economy minister. The decision deepened the sense of crisis in Berlin.

Germany's press derided the political chaos. The best-selling tabloid Bild referred to the "banana republic of Germany," while the conservative Die Welt described prospects for a grand coalition as "the grand confusion."

A conservative columnist wrote in the Berliner Morgenpost daily that if the parties were unable to agree on such a coalition, new elections were an option, albeit a dangerous one.

"No one knows yet whether new elections would bring less complicated relations," Michael Moeller wrote.

Both camps are under pressure to reach a consensus on policies before a self-imposed November 12 deadline.

With a dozen key SPD leaders pledging to back him, Platzeck vowed to help create a stable coalition government with the CDU/CSU.

Muentefering announced he would step aside after SPD members voted down his candidate for the party's number two job. He later said, however, that he was ready to serve in a government.

But Bavaria's Stoiber told reporters after a meeting of his CSU, the Bavarian sister party of the CDU: "The course of the SPD and its reliability is not so clear anymore."

He said Michael Glos, a top CSU parliamentarian, would take his spot as economy minister.

Stoiber has been a staunch ally of CDU leader Merkel since the election outcome led to the coalition talks. It remains unclear if he will now join ranks with Merkel's critics.

In a brief reaction statement, Merkel said she accepted Stoiber's decision and pledged to push ahead with negotiations, while admitting the task had become difficult.

(China Daily November 3, 2005)