German Social Democrats elect Andrea Nahles as first female leader

WIESBADEN, Germany: Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats on Sunday elected Andrea Nahles, a combative and outspoken former labour minister, as the first woman leader of the 155-year-old party.

Known for her lectern-thumping speeches and occasional outbursts of child-like humour, the 47-year-old single mother joins Chancellor Angela Merkel at the top of German politics — and as the woman who may one day seek her job.

“We’re breaking though the glass ceiling in the SPD,” said Nahles at the delegates’ meeting in the city of Wiesbaden. “And the ceiling will stay open.” Well-connected within her party, Nahles, a former leader of its Jusos youth wing, won 66 percent of the vote, beating Simone Lange, 41, an ex-policewoman and mayor of the city of Flensburg.

The less than stellar result against an outsider reflected lingering resentment within the party against the decision, strongly promoted by Nahles, to once more govern as junior partners to Merkel’s conservatives. Electing a female leader is “a sign of progress that was long overdue,” said the SPD’s outgoing interim leader, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who called it “a historic moment”. In the lead-up to the vote, well-wishers had ironically expressed hope that Nahles would do worse than her predecessor Martin Schulz.