Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber announces that he will step down in September 2007.
As argued below (in a German posting) Stoiber is a conservative with strong leanings towards “social” policies. His likely successor Guenter Beckstein, currently interior minister in Bavaria, is a long-time Stoiber friend. Both can be considered as pro U.S., at least regarding the military cooperation between Germany and the U.S.
Both Beckstein and Stoiber are advocates of subsidies for the agricultural sector. They are pro business, but hesitant to subscribe to free market policies – which comes as no surprise in a country such as Germany with a long tradition of cartels.
