Governor of German state quits after cancer diagnosis

BERLIN – The governor of Germany’s northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state, whose popularity helped the centre-left Social Democrats win a regional election last year, says he’s stepping down for health reasons.

The 67-year-old Erwin Sellering said Tuesday he has been diagnosed with lymph cancer that needs immediate treatment.

Sellering proposed as his replacement Manuela Schwesig, the minister for families in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s national coalition government.

Schwesig is one of the most prominent figures in the Social Democratic Party, which is the junior partner in the federal government but leads the administration in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The state, located on the Baltic Sea coast of the former East Germany, is one of the country’s least prosperous. It is also where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency.