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:
“In order to remain true to oneself one ought to renounce one’s party three times a day.”
—Jean Rostand (1894–1977)
“This will not be disloyalty but will show that as members of a party they are loyal first to the fine things for which the party stands and when it rejects those things or forgets the legitimate objects for which parties exist, then as a party it cannot command the honest loyalty of its members.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“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)