The Finance Minister and German Holiday Habits

If you don't have much time to bother about what's going on in Germany, take the following article pars pro toto.

Germany Up in Arms Over Minister's Holiday Comments. Deutsche Welle - Business.

Apparantly, Germany's finance minister Peer Steinbrueck himself is longing for a loooong vacation:

"People are going to have to spend more on their old age and healthcare in future," he said in an interview with a magazine. "That means that we'll no doubt have to forego a holiday trip in order to put aside money for later."

This overwhelmingly stupid remark lead to an immidiate withdrawal of 650 members of the minister's (and my) party, according to the German daily Tagesspiegel.

In the meanwhile, Steinbrueck apologized (german), claiming that "misinterpretation" and "exaggeration" of his remark caused the outrage. Oh, my.