Schroeder quits as party leader

[Middle-aged Europe]

Clement is the finance minister. The new party leader will be Franz Muentefering. Not that he'd win an Election either, he's just too boring.

Clement is Economy and Labour, Hans Eichel is Finance Minister.  

Is it true that Oskar Lafontaine is making a comeback?

I always considered this as highly unlikely. Saw him yesterday on TV and he ruled out a comeback again. This is just a very popular rumour, which simply refuses to disappear.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Aren't most members of the SPD/Green coalition ex-far lefties? Fischer, Schily, Trittin, Thierse...

With Fischer, Schily and Trittin you are right. But I wouldn´t call Thierse a "ex-far leftie". After all, he´s from the former GDR and was one of the founders (and short-term chairman) of the SPD there. Although he was probably always a "leftie", he was also clearly in opposition to the regime there and therefore not "far left".

[Middle-aged Europe]

While we´re at... asked about the possibility of coalitions between the CDU and the Greens on state level Michael Glos, leader of the CSU regional group within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, said today that he opposes coalitions with "eco-stalinists" and "former terrorists" like Fischer or Trittin (what the hell is an "eco-stalinist"?).

[Middle-aged Europe]

I can´t say much about Schily or Ströbele, but I think from the late 60ies until the mid-70ies Fischer was some sort of a left-wing extremist anarchist who opposed the "fascist police state" in West Germany as he saw it. But he was never a terrorist in the meaning of the word. He never blew things up or kidnapped/killed people or things like this.

I believe the major political turning point in his life was when a Air France plane was hijacked by a terrorist command in 1976 or so. And some of the terrorists involved in the hijacking were old "comrades" of Fischer. This event was so a major shock for Fischer that he broke with the violent left-wing movement and began to turn back to democracy.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I seem to remember a picture of him and some others kicking a policeman?

Beating a policeman is neither appropriate nor legal, but it isn´t exactly something I would call "terrorism".