Minister-President of Saxony,2002–2009
On 18 April 2002,Milbradt was elected as Minister-President of Saxony,despite Biedenkopf's explicit opposition. Milbradt first governed with an absolute CDU majority,but in a coalition with the SPD after the 2004 elections,in which the CDU lost a large number of votes. [1]
During Milbradt's second term,the state government secured a sizable investment by American chipmaker AMD into expanding production of 300-millimeter wafers in Dresden;AMD received an undisclosed volume of subsidies from the government. [2]
In August 2007,just before the 2008 financial crisis,Milbradt announced that the state government would sell its 51% share in SachsenLB –which found itself overwhelmed by Subprime lending-linked losses incurred by off-balance-sheet subsidiaries –to the larger Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW). [3]
In April 2008 Milbradt announced that he would resign from the office by the end of May and that Stanislaw Tillich would succeed him. He had been under pressure for months because of his involvement in the liquidity crisis of Sachsen LB. Milbradt had also been criticized for private loans from the bank during his time as Minister of Finance in Saxony;in April 2008,the state government confirmed that Milbradt and his wife had borrowed a total of around €172,000 ($272,000) between 1996 and 1999 to help purchase around €360,000 in investment fund products from a subsidiary of the bank. [4]
