MOSCOW (Sputnik) — German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Thursday that he will not be a minister in the country’s new government.
"I won't be part of the new government," Gabriel said on Twitter, adding that the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group head Andrea Nahles and SPD interim leader Olaf Scholz told him about this fact.
However, Gabriel noted that he would remain a member of the Bundestag.
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Following Gabriel's announcement, Spiegel Online reported that Social Democrat Heiko Maas, Justice Minister in the last government, would take the office of the German Foreign Minister under conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel in her new coalition with the SPD.
On Sunday, SPD agreed to form a coalition with Merkel's bloc of CDU/CSU, with 66 percent of SPD's members voted in favor of the grand coalition.