Germany’s Transport Minister Patrick Schneider says he will ask Chancellor Friedrich Merz to fire him.
“I am drawing the necessary conclusions from the developments of the past few days and, at the same time, want to end the abusive situation that is making it impossible to carry out essential, objective work,” Scheider said in a statement to German press agency dpa on Sunday.
Merz announced a cabinet reshuffle on Friday and it was reported that Schneider would be among those facing dismissal. However, Merz did not comment on this portfolio in his press conference.
There is widespread frustration over the state of Germany’s rail network and crumbling infrastructure.
A government spokesman said Sunday evening that Merz would propose that conservative parliamentary director Stefan Bilger replace Schneider as transport minister.
Merz criticized Schneider’s treatment
Merz faced criticism on Friday after admitting he was considering further cabinet changes.
In Schneider’s home state Rhineland-Palatinate it was called a “communications disaster”.
“We don’t understand the chancellor,” Michael Ludwig, a lawmaker from Merz’s center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Ludwig said, “We have a capable, hard-working and highly respected transport minister who knows he is about to be dismissed – no one knows why, or who will be his successor.”
The turmoil follows the resignation of former parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn, triggering a series of personnel changes in the conservative-led government.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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