Berlin - Germany's Social Democrats, still licking their wounds after a heavy election defeat at the weekend, completed a reshuffle of the entire leadership on Thursday. A meeting of party leaders selected outgoing Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, 50, to replace Franz Muentefering, 69, as chairman of the left-leaning party.
In addition to the party leader, the posts of secretary-general, and four vice-chairmen will all be filled by new faces, senior party sources told the German Press Agency dpa.
The SPD suffered its worst postwar election defeat on Sunday when it was catapulted into the opposition after 11 years in government, the last four in a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU).
Andrea Nahles, from the SPD's left wing, was nominated as secretary-general, replacing Hubertus Heil, who along with Muentefering announced on Monday that he would not seek re-election.
The party executive is expected to formally announce the changes on Monday ahead of the appointees being endorsed by a party congress in November.
Gabriel, a former premier of the state of Lower Saxony, is from the centre of the party, but said to enjoy good relations with both the right and left wings of the SPD.
His four deputies are Berlin governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit, former Labour Minister Olaf Scholz, Hannelore Kraft, SPD leader in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, and Manuela Schwesig, social affairs minister in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.
The outcome of the general election, which saw the SPD vote share plunge 11.2 per cent to 23 per cent, triggered renewed squabbling between the party's left and centrist wings.
Some analysts said the party was punished by its supporters for abandoning tradition SPD values during its time in the Merkel-led coalition.
