Gerhard Schroder attempted to look grave as he spoke after an emergency meeting of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) leadership yesterday. But he could not resist smiling when a reporter asked if he was pleased to have been nominated as party chairman.
"If I wasn't pleased, I wouldn't have accepted," he replied sweetly.
In less than 24 hours, the Chancellor went from being the weak leader of a divided, undisciplined coalition to becoming the undisputed strongman of German politics, in full command of his party and his government.
The surprise departure of the finance minister and party chairman, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, not only rid Mr Schroder of his most formidable rival within the government. It allowed him to seize control of Germany's largest political party and stamp his authority on the five-month-old coalition of Social Democrats and Greens.
The Chancellor was so confident that the SPD leadership would nominate him as chairman that he insisted on a secret ballot of the 32 people eligible to vote: 23 voted in favour, six against and three abstained.
There was no opposition to the choice of Mr Hans Eichel, the outgoing premier of Hesse, as Mr Lafontaine's successor in the Finance Ministry. A low-key financial expert, Mr Eichel is popular among both wings of the SPD and has made an ideological journey during recent years from left to right.
Regardless of his political outlook, Mr Eichel will be no threat to the Chancellor and can be relied upon to toe whatever line Mr Schroder chooses.
The circumstances surrounding Mr Lafontaine's departure were still unclear yesterday as he stayed behind closed doors at his home in Saarbrucken. Mr Schroder insisted that he did not know the reasons behind Mr Lafontaine's resignation, and the Chancellor's spokesman confirmed that there has been no contact between the two men since the resignation.
As lurid rumours about the resignation swept Bonn, the Chancellor insisted that the government's work would continue as before. "There is no crisis. One man has made a decision. That does not amount to a crisis," he said.
Although Mr Schroder is almost certain to be confirmed as party chairman at a special SPD conference next month, he remains unloved by party activists, many of whom regard him as too detached from traditional Social Democratic values.
But as Chancellor and party chairman, Mr Schroder will be in a strong position to promote his allies within the party and to reward his favourites with government posts. Dr Helmut Kohl's political success owed much to his complete control over the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his network of loyalists at every level in the party.
Many Social Democrats who face re-election at state or local level this year may be prepared to swallow their ideological objections to Mr Schroder when they look at his poll ratings. The Chancellor remains considerably more popular than his party, and nervous SPD candidates are keen to bask in his reflected media glory.
As for Mr Schroder's coalition partners in the Greens, they have no alternative to remaining part of the present government, as their leaders made clear yesterday. But the departure of Mr Lafontaine opens up a number of alternative options for the Chancellor, notably a coalition with the pro-business Liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
The FDP were part of every German government from 1969 until 1998 and they are feeling uncomfortable on the opposition benches. The party co-operated with the government this week on a plan to reform Germany's 85-year-old citizenship law, and further co-operation is possible.
Now that Mr Lafontaine is gone, the Chancellor has only one troublesome minister in his cabinet, the Green Environment Minister, Mr Jurgen Trittin. The mass-circulation Bild newspaper predicted yesterday that Mr Trittin may resign within days, but there was little sign of such a move last night.
The Environment Minister knows the Chancellor better than most ministers, having worked with him in the state government in Lower Saxony. And despite his image as a hardliner, Mr Trittin is among the more pragmatic members of his party.
On the night of Mr Lafontaine's resignation, Mr Schroder was due to attend a lecture in Bonn by Prof Anthony Giddens, the house philosopher of the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair. Prof Giddens is a prophet of the socalled Third Way, a mixture of theories from left and right that appeals to Mr Schroder but was anathema to Mr Lafontaine. The Chancellor insisted yesterday that there would be no change in the government's direction and dismissed a report that he was preparing to scrap his former finance minister's tax plans.
But there is likely to be, at the very least, a change of emphasis in Bonn as the government shows a friendlier face towards business. The reaction of business leaders to Mr Lafontaine's resignation suggests that they believe they are on the verge of a new age of co-operation with the government.
Mr Schroder is willing to compromise with industry in order to ensure the success of his Alliance for Jobs, which aims to cut German unemployment by one million before 2002. But as the Chancellor's position strengthens, business may find that the smiling Mr Schroder is a more formidable negotiating partner than the much maligned and now departed Mr Lafontaine.
