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Kurt Beck
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Kurt Beck (born February 5, 1949) is a German politician (SPD), serving as the Minister President of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) since 1994 and as President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. On May 14, 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post on September 7 2008.
was born in Bad Bergzabern, Palatinate, to the bricklayer Oskar Beck and his wife Johanna.
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Encyclopedia
Kurt Beck (born February 5, 1949) is a German politician (SPD), serving as the Minister President of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) since 1994 and as President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. On May 14, 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). He resigned from that post on September 7 2008.
Biography
Beck was born in Bad Bergzabern, Palatinate, to the bricklayer Oskar Beck and his wife Johanna. Both his parents had their roots in the town Kapsweyer in southern Rhenish Palatinate. He grew up in Steinfeld.
From 1963 to 1968, he became an electrician. After passing his military duty in 1968 and 1969, he graduated from an evening school in 1972. Since then, he went on as an employee representative on works councils.
Beck is Catholic. He lives with his wife, Roswitha, whom he married in 1968, in Steinfeld, Rhineland-Palatinate. They have one son.
Political career
After joining the SPD in 1972, mainly because of the Party's programme as well as the personality of Willy Brandt, Beck became chairman of the SPD of Rhineland Palatinate in 1993 and deputy chairman of the federal party in 2003. He served in this function up to May 14, 2006, when Matthias Platzeck had to resign for medical reasons and Beck was officially elected as chairman of the SPD with the approval of 95 % of the delegates.
In local affairs, Beck is active since 1974, when he was first elected a member of the Kreistag. From 1989 to 1994, he was mayor of his hometown Steinfeld. Since 1979, he is a directly-elected member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. In it, he served as the speaker for social affairs of the Parliamentary group of the SPD from 1982 to 1985 and as a member of the governing body of the group from 1985 to 1993, when he was elected chairman.
On October 26, 1994, Kurt Beck was elected Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, succeeding Rudolf Scharping. He was re-elected three times, in 1996, 2001 and 2006. As prime minister he is known for his centrist approach, which is also apparent from the choice of his coalition partner (the liberal FDP instead of the left-wing Green Party, with which the SPD has recently allied itself). In this point, he follows the policy of Scharping. In March 2006, Beck's SPD gained an absolute majority in the state elections; Beck offered to continue the coalition but since the FDP declined, the SPD formed a government without a partner. After Edmund Stoiber resigned in 2007, Beck is the senior Minister President in Germany.
In 2000 and 2001, Beck was President of the Bundesrat, one of his duties as Minister President.
According to public opinion polls, Beck's possibilities of becoming Bundeskanzler, should he run for this office, are very limited. According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, only 16% of the Germans would elect him in the hypothetical case of a direct voting against Angela Merkel.
On September 7 2008, Beck resigned as Chairman at a party meeting in Werder and Steinmeier was chosen as the SPD candidate for Chancellor in the 2009 election, while Franz Müntefering was expected to replace Beck as Chairman. Beck said that he was a victim of intrigue inside the SPD.
Controversies
Henrico Frank
In the end of 2006, Beck recommended to Henrico Frank, an unemployed construction worker from Wiesbaden, to wash himself and shave, so he could get a job. Following a media controversy about Beck's behaviour, Frank declined all jobs offered to him by the state chamber. Later, he was hired as a punk rock expert for iMusic TV.
Afghanistan
In April 2007, Beck proposed a peace conference in Afghanistan with the inclusion of "Moderate Taliban". The Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, thus accused him of being naive. He compared the idea of "Moderate Taliban" to distinguishing between Moderate and Radical Right-wing extremists in Rhineland-Palatinate. The German public mostly ignored the affair.
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