Mr Schneider, a member of the opposition Social Democratic party (SPD), said some parts of Germany had an acute lack of training places for jobless youths.

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In state elections in Germany at the weekend Merkel's party suffered an electoral setback, losing control of Germany's most populous state to the opposition Social Democratic Party.

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Thilo Sarrazin, a governor of the Bundesbank (and it's worth mentioning, a member of the left-of-center Social Democratic party) was pressured to resign his post in September after publishing a book arguing the failure of Germany's absorption of immigrants.

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