Kurt beck has been chairman of the Social Democratic Party (spd), the junior partner in Germany's grand coalition government, since May 2006. But only now has the party crowned him. Colleagues asked if his homespun ways and rustic accent befitted the leader of Germany's oldest political party. The spd's modernising ministers paid him little heed. Yet at the party convention in Hamburg between October 26th and 28th, over 95% of delegates voted to re-elect him. Newspapers dubbed him "King Kurt".
展开▼
