THE AVERAGE age of Angela Merkel’s cabinet has fallen substantially after her ailing coalition partner, the Free Democrats, agreed a reshuffle of its ministers yesterday.
New Free Democrats’ leader Philip Rösler hopes to shake off the deckchairs-on-the-Titanic jokes by leaving the health ministry to take over the prestigious economics ministry.
In an attempt to boost his profile and his political clout, the 38-year-old has elbowed aside senior incumbent Reiner Brüderle (66) into the role of chief whip.
Mr Rösler has left the health ministry in the hands of his deputy minister, Daniel Bahr (34).
Head of the Free Democrats in North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr Bahr is a close confidante of Mr Rösler and, together with the youthful general secretary Christian Linder, form the so-called “boygroup”: young, well-groomed thirtysomething men all mentored by ex-party boss Guido Westerwelle.
With none of his political apprentices prepared to oust him from cabinet, Mr Westerwelle looks set to stay on as foreign minister.
Mr Rösler hopes the reshuffle will allow him put his stamp on the party that is lingering below 5 per cent support in opinion polls.
Meanwhile, another rising Free Democrats’ star may become the second German political to have her doctor title revoked on suspicion of plagiarism.
Silvana Koch-Mehrin, an MEP and vice-president of the European Parliament, has been asked by her alma mater, Heidelberg University, to explain reported cases of uncited material in her doctoral thesis, "Historical Currency Unions between Business and Politics".
Berlin’s Tagesspiegel reported yesterday that this step was a formality before the university begins a process to revoke the doctoral title. An online co-operative has claimed in an analysis that her doctoral thesis contains uncited material on one in four pages.
Dr Koch-Mehrin, who is married with three children to a Roscommon man, has so far declined to comment on the allegations.
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