Germany said on Wednesday its robust economy would fuel record employment this year and next as well as boost consumer spending and industrial investment.
They were wiped out in the elections a month ago but as Germany slowly sorts out a government Liberal Party ministers remain in place. Their deputies will also be paid €22,000 over two months despite losing their seats in parliament.
Voters abandoned Germany's Liberal party in their droves on Sunday after the party spent four years in coalition with the Conservative CDU. The result should be a stark warning to Britain's Liberal Democrats, argues The Local's <b>Tom Bristow</b>.
The FDP meltdown continued late on Monday as the entire party leadership announced they would step down following Sunday's historic defeat. Five outgoing cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle fell on their swords.
<b>UPDATE:</b> The FDP's leader Philipp Rösler stepped down on Monday morning after the party's worst result in its 65-year history. The Liberals were blasted from power, out of parliament and into the political doldrums.
The chairman of Germany's junior coalition party caused a stir on Sunday by dismissing almost all of the ruling union's proposals, like childcare subsidies, as too expensive.
The German government slashed its growth prognosis for next year from 1.6 percent to just 1.0 percent, Economy Minister Philipp Rösler said on Wednesday. He also marginally increased the forecast for the current year.
German junior coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) has called for a bonus for doctors who recommend holistic activities to patients, but the suggestion has been met with scepticism.
The parties of Germany's ruling coalition continue throwing verbal barbs at one another over the euro crisis. The Free Democrats refuse to back down from their eurosceptic stance, despite demands from the Christian Democrats.
German Economy Minister Philipp Rösler would welcome increased investment by controversial Russian gas giant Gazprom - a topic for Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev this week
In an effort to signal a break with the past and whip up fresh momentum, the pro-business Free Democrats have blasted the “bureaucratically fossilised welfare state” and called for an end to parenting payments.
Free Democrats MEP Silvana Koch-Mehrin resigned from all her party positions, and her job as Vice President of the European Parliament on Wednesday evening in the wake of a scandal of alleged plagiarism in her doctoral thesis.
Health Minister Philipp Rösler vowed to restore credibility to the embattled Free Democrats on Tuesday as he was anointed to lead his party and become the new deputy chancellor.
Health Minister Philipp Rösler was shaping up Monday morning as the most likely new leader of the Free Democrats as the business-friendly party geared up for generational change and tough times ahead.
The political body blows that have rained down on Free Democrats leader Guido Westerwelle for more than a year have finally taken their toll. But can his party recover? The Local’s press round-up gauges the debate.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was in Japan on Saturday to meet his counterpart Takeaki Matsumoto although a visit to the earthquake disaster area or the severely damaged nuclear power station Fukushima was not planned.
German Health Minister Philipp Rösler played the part of politician and paramedic on Thursday evening, after a woman began to feel faint during an event organised by his fellow Free Democrats in the state of Hessen.
Germany's 50 million members of statutory health insurance schemes will pay more for their health coverage after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved sweeping changes to the system on Wednesday.
Doctors have spoken out against calls within the conservative Christian Democrats party to relax organ donation rules, claiming on Monday that such a move would damage the image of organ donation and do more harm than good.
About one million people have refused to pay additional fees levied by statutory health insurers this year to fill budgetary shortfalls, a media report said on Tuesday.
Most people in Germany did not get themselves inoculated against the swine flu last year, leaving the country's federal states sitting on millions of euros worth of stocks of the vaccine.
The centre-right government’s health reform plan was blasted Wednesday by opposition parties, unions and insurers as a failure to tackle the deep problems with the health system that would burden the poorest.
Workers and their employers will have to kick more money into health insurance schemes as part of a rescue package the government announced Tuesday in an effort to prop up cash-strapped insurers.
