SPD set for leadership changes after election debacle (Roundup)

Berlin - Leaders of Germany's embattled Social Democratic Party (SPD) announced Tuesday they were giving up their posts after the party suffered a crushing general election defeat. Hubertus Heil said he would not stand for re-election as secretary-general when the party holds its next congress in the eastern city of Dresden in mid-November. A spokesman for outgoing Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said that he would step down as one of the three deputies to party chairman Franz Muentefering. On Monday, Muentefering indicated to journalists that he would not seek re-election in Dresden in order to give the party a chance to regenerate itself under a new leadership. The SPD suffered its worst postwar election defeat on Sunday, allowing Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) to garner enough support to form a new conservative alliance with the business-oriented Free Democrats. The SPD had served in a grand coalition with the CDU for the past four years after neither party was able muster enough votes to govern with its preferred partner, following the last election in 2005. Outgoing Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was the party's challenger to Merkel for the chancellorship, told a meeting of SPD deputies he would not be a candidate for the party leadership. Favourite for this post is Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, according to SPD sources, with Muentefering deputy Andrea Nahles, from the party's left wing, front-runner as secretary-general. 'It is my wish for the leadership of the party to rest on several shoulders,' media reports quoted Steinmeier as saying. Steinmeier was on Tuesday elected SPD floor leader in parliament, replacing Peter Strueck, who had earlier announced his retirement from politics. The outcome of the general election, which saw the SPD vote share plunge 11.2 per cent to 23 per cent, triggered renewed squabbling between the party's left and centrist wings after they put on a show of unity during the election campaign. Shortly after the extent of the SPD's defeat became clear, left- wingers called for a rejuvenation of the party leadership - a demand clearly directed at Muentefering, who is 69. Some analysts said the party suffered from its four years in the Merkel-led coalition because the chancellor was able to claim credit for its successes, while the SPD was blamed for things that did not go so well. Analysis of voting trends suggested that many SPD voters stayed away from the polling booths in dissatisfaction at the party's shift away from traditional SPD values. The CDU was scheduled to begin coalition talks with the FDP on Monday in Berlin. The two parties won a comfortable majority in the German lower house of parliament, or Bundestag. FDP leader Guido Westerwelle was overwhelmingly endorsed on Tuesday as head of the party's parliamentary faction, strengthening his hand in the negotiations. The FDP leader, who is being touted as Germany's next foreign minister, did not indicate how long he expected the negotiations to last. On Monday Chancellor Merkel said she would like to have a new cabinet in place by November 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.