Party
Clement has been a member of the SPD since 1970. From 1981 to 1986 he was spokesman for the SPD federal executive board and was also a deputy federal party whip from 1985 to 1986.
From 1994 to 2001 he was on the SPD State Executive in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), from 1996 as deputy leader. Clement has been a member of the SPD federal executive board since 1997 and SPD deputy chairman since December 1999.
On 31 July 2008, Clement was shut out from the SPD by the Landesschiedskommission (i.e. State arbitration board) of NRW. Clement, not willing to accept this, went to the superior Bundesschiedskommission (Federal arbitration board) which subsequently cancelled the verdict on 24 November 2008. On 25 November, however, Clement himself announced his decision to leave the party.
Read more about this topic: Wolfgang Clement
Famous quotes containing the word party:
“When the doctrine of allegiance to party can utterly up-end a man’s moral constitution and make a temporary fool of him besides, what excuse are you going to offer for preaching it, teaching it, extending it, perpetuating it? Shall you say, the best good of the country demands allegiance to party? Shall you also say it demands that a man kick his truth and his conscience into the gutter, and become a mouthing lunatic, besides?”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Pull out a Monte Cristo at a dinner party and the political liberal turns into the nicotine fascist.”
—Martyn Harris (b. 1952)
“The party of God and the party of Literature have more in common than either will admit; their texts may conflict, but their bigotries coincide. Both insist on being the sole custodians of the true word and its only interpreters.”
—Frederic Raphael (b. 1931)