Steinmeier makes the appointment

On Tuesday, 13 October 2026, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier handed Alexander Schweitzer, a 53-year-old SPD politician, the certificate appointing him federal labour minister in Berlin. Earlier that day Steinmeier had given Bärbel Bas her dismissal papers during a talk in the building, and Bas did not appear in public. She had resigned on Monday, 12 October, with immediate effect from her posts as minister and SPD chair, and in doing so raised accusations against the Union. Schweitzer, who was minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate, said he had some experience in coalitions. Steinmeier stressed that every government post stays filled, while the public still expects responsibility, discipline and a willingness to compromise, and he closed with a brief warning:

It is a lot at stake.

Bas's exit and the tone in Berlin

Steinmeier said the resignation came partly because of a bereavement in Bas's family, and he called a senior government post a 'Herkulesaufgabe' that a blow of fate can limit. He added that the debate climate, including on social media, lacks all respect. Kurt Beck, the former SPD chair, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that Bas had been treated 'very unfairly' and that the pressure on her after the death of a close person had been harsh. Beck said the way politicians deal with each other in Berlin has grown rougher. He trusts Schweitzer to find compromises, as he did in Rhineland-Palatinate, but says coalition partners must also want success. Beck believes the coalition can still act, provided reforms are not lost through poor implementation.

Merz presses for fast reform bills

Merz made his demands on Tuesday at the Deutscher Arbeitgebertag in Berlin, where about 400 representatives of employers' associations had gathered. He told Schweitzer to start working from day one. Schweitzer is due at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, 14 October, and is due to work in the ministry from 11:00. The pension and labour market bills were agreed by the coalition committee on 1 July, within a 34-point programme for growth and employment, and Merz wants them in cabinet as soon as possible. He also wants the pension file finalised this year and coordinated with the Bundestag parliamentary groups and the federal states before it goes to cabinet. Merz said the timeline has already run long:

July, August, September, October. That is already too long for me.

Open succession at the top of the SPD

Who succeeds Bas as SPD chair remains unclear. Defence minister Boris Pistorius, whose popularity has often been cited, said at the employers' day that he will definitely not stand as party chair, and he was 'very much' in favour of Lars Klingbeil running again. Klingbeil is now the sole chair and has announced that the party leadership will be re-elected at a congress around the turn of the year, while the Frankfurter Allgemeine expects the congress in January. Beck wants a man and a woman to lead the party as a duo and said the critical vote on Klingbeil at the last election should not be overrated. The Frankfurter Allgemeine reports that Manuela Schwesig, minister-president of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, looks like the only realistic option, though she has not said she wants the post and is busy with coalition talks in her state. Hubertus Heil, the former labour minister, has ambitions but a poor relationship with Klingbeil, according to the same report.