Laschet can only hope that Söder will still do the Lafontaine – opinion

It was not necessarily to be expected that Gerhard Schröder and Oskar Lafontaine would serve as role models again. But in 1998 the SPD candidate for chancellor and his party chairman were the last political duo to jointly muster the strength to win the Bundestag election that same year after internal competition. There was never any doubt about Schröder’s urge to join the Chancellery. The unconditional will to bring the party to power, however, also allowed the defeated Lafontaine to submit, at least until the election. It was a mixture of harmony and hypocrisy – but it worked.