Tag: Helmut Kohl

In German political chaos, ‘rubble woman’ to the rescue

by Frank Zeller Agence France-Presse BERLIN, Germany (AFP) – Germany’s chaos-wracked Social Democrats have named Andrea Nahles as their designated next leader, meaning women will soon be in the driver’s seats of the two biggest parties and shifting a long-skewed gender balance in politics. Alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel, Nahles is set to join a growing band of women heading, or co-leading, German political parties despite the fact that female lawmakers still account for fewer than one third […]

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Merkel’s office expresses deep sorrow ‘great European’ Kohl dead

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert on Friday expressed “deep sorrow over a great German and a great European” on news that Helmut Kohl had died. Merkel’s chancellery chief-of-staff Peter Altmaier said that “we owe an infinite debt to Helmut Kohl: for our freedom, for our unity, for our Europe.”

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German veteran leader, EU visionary Kohl dies

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s longest serving post-war leader, Helmut Kohl, the father of German reunification and an architect of European integration, died Friday at the age of 87. Kohl, a passionate European, helped long-divided Germany navigate the traumatic transition to a reunified country, and later worked with France’s Francois Mitterand to put Germany at the core of the European project. Tributes poured in for the man former United States president George H.W. Bush hailed […]

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