[LClan439]

To be clear, I've done no such thing.

[pepBarihepe]

Hmm a person in a ceremonial position with no power resigned over some comment. *yawn*

[HawksBurnDown]

The gist of what he said was that sometimes Germany should deploy troops to protect its economic interests? That's controversial?

Its perfectly ok for almost any normal country. But we all know the dirty Huns can't be trusted.

[Prosocorneliay]

I guess the thinking is that it goes from protecting economic interests to lebensraum...

[KlaraNovikoffaZ]

Well, something like using military for keeping world trade alive (a la the anti-piracy mission off Somalia) is economic interest as well, and as such not controversial here.

It just seemed that in this case he was particularly misinterpreted, and now I read there were also long-term issues between him and others in the German political elite. It looks like he was kinda fed up overall and took this option to get out. Not quite the reaction I expect from someone at his position, but fits to the current confusion in German politics...

[Pvfcadbh]

Well, the real reason why he resigned of course is,
that the current government thinks about giving Stefan Raab the Federal Cross of Merit (for managing the ESC stuff)
and Köhler doesn´t like Raab and doesn´t want to have to be the person who awards it to him

[Amirmsheesk]

Indeed. This adds another problem that needs to be solved in relatively short time - the constitution says a new pres has to be found in max. 30 days.

However, the biggest difficulty for the coalition in the coming days/weeks will be to present a new budget to adress debt problems while not saving the economy to death. Most commentators here think the coalition could fall over this if they don't find a solution that both sides can live with.

Surely it is in the mutual interests of both parties to come to an agreement though given the recent polls, especially the FDP who seem to have lost all their support?

Looking at this Angus Reid poll it looks like there will be a struggle for any coalition to form after the next election... any chance of the CDU forming any coalition or will the SDP have the best chance with the Left and the Greens?

I'm not sure if that's a reflective poll however...

Sorry for the questions, but I'm not fluent in German so it's hard for me to get a good understanding of what's going on in a very interesting political arena.