Photo: DPAPeter Tauber, secretary-general of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party, will step down from his post for health reasons, party sources said on Sunday. Tauber, 43, will announce his decision on Monday, the sources said, with a successor to be named at an extraordinary party congress on February 26th. Although Tauber is seen as a close associate of Merkel's, infighting within the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) led the chancellor to designate another party stalwart to draft the party's electoral platform last year. The CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD), both weakened by the elections, finally reluctantly renewed their left-right "grand coalition" or "GroKo" last week. Some within the CDU have criticized the deal, which saw the SPD clinch the finance portfolio, as too generous.

Source: The Local February 19, 2018 07:41 UTC