Bad polls, bad prospects: Things are not going well for the SPD. Now there should be more arguments again – if necessary also with the Chancellor.
What’s wrong with the Social Democrats? Aaaalso… The party urgently needs change. Must do more to support workers and poor people. Many would feel abandoned by the federal government – led by the SPD. There is a need for action. Oh no, even a change of course is necessary.
Rumms.
At least that’s how the party youth sees it, spelled out in a key motion that is to be decided next weekend at the Federal Congress of the Jusos. Placed under the subheading: “Relationship to the SPD”. This could obviously be better.
Now youth associations are traditionally viewed as rebellious and stubborn. But more and more comrades from the parent party should be able to rally behind the basic analysis: things should be going much better for the SPD.
SPD in crisis: What is going wrong with the Social Democrats?
The poll numbers: a paltry 15 percent, especially for a chancellor’s party. The results of the last state elections: real reminders, in both Bavaria and Hesse the Social Democrats were punished with (sometimes historic) lows. The future: does not bode well.
The European elections are coming up next year, a classic protest election. If you believe the polls, the AfD, which is partly right-wing extremist, will emerge as the clear winner in the subsequent state elections in East Germany – and the SPD will lose by a single digit.
So: What is going wrong with the Social Democrats?
The surprising victory in the federal elections disciplined the party and closed the ranks of the actually belligerent comrades. There were hardly any doubts or even criticism of one’s own course. Instead, the party exercised demonstrative restraint. True to the motto: No friction – it only gets in the way of governing.
That was the hope. Here’s the catch: If you want to draw your strength from consistent silence, you can hardly make yourself heard when there’s noise.
The SPD was able to push through a few things, such as increasing the minimum wage or introducing citizens’ money. This was celebrated more quietly. The noisy headlines were written by the coalition partners who were loudly arguing about basic child welfare (Greens) or the Growth Opportunities Act (FDP).
The calculation of leaving internal party friction to others obviously failed to increase one’s own popularity ratings. The SPD had taken on the role of moderator and mediator – sometimes leaning towards one, sometimes the other controversialist. The message to voters should obviously be this: The SPD is governed by the professionals who keep the business running. While with others one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing (Greens) or they play opposition in the government themselves in order to stand out from the unpopular traffic light alliance (Liberals) – that’s at least how it is spread by one or two comrades .
Only: The position of the SPD, the necessary struggle for its own course, was often lost in all the moderation.
The impression seems to be gradually gaining ground among the SPD that it is not enough to manage the coalition and many crises, that one must instead set one’s own accents. Even if that means confronting the coalition partners. Or even with your own chancellor. There should be arguments again, at least a little.
“To achieve this, the SPD must become even more visible”
At the beginning of December at the federal party conference, the party leadership wants to launch a modernization agenda that is tough – and should make the red heart beat faster again. Higher burdens for top earners and millionaires. A weakening of the debt brake. Everything to mobilize billions of dollars in investments in infrastructure, business and education.
“We are positioning ourselves as the SPD and presenting a plan for how we imagine the future of the country,” said co-party leader Lars Klingbeil recently star-Interview on this. It could also be an attempt at liberation, perhaps even a personal one.
The two SPD chairmen want to stay that way; on Monday, Klingbeil and Saskia Esken announced their renewed candidacy at the federal party conference (the star reported). Your re-election is considered certain. But of course the SPD dual leadership also has to ask itself what share it has in the ten poll percentage points that have been decimated since the federal election. And how the two of them think they can win her back.
In any case, the expectations of the previous party leaders are there. He is pleased that the two chairmen are moving on, says SPD member of the Bundestag Sebastian Roloff star. But he also says: The next two years will be about not only doing “good work” in the federal government, but also showing what the party stands for – even if not everything can be implemented at the moment.
It’s obvious who Roloff might mean: For the FDP, the SPD plans touch several red lines. In any case, Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai felt compelled to to remember via Xthat the Liberals are a “guarantor” that the debt brake will be adhered to and that there will be no tax increases with them. Djir-Sarai shared a link to an article with the headline: “SPD calls for higher taxes and reform of the debt brake.” At least among the Liberals, the attempt at profiling was registered. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is not exactly a fan of fundamentally relaxing the current debt rules.
“We must not put on coalition blinders,” says SPD man Roloff. “Our clientele in particular needs to know who advocates socially just policies for them and the SPD needs to be even more visible.”
Other comrades put it more sharply, albeit behind closed doors. Tenor: The party must focus more on classic SPD issues – more apartments and lower rents, well-paid jobs and secure pensions. Migration policy, which also needs to be addressed, is less seen as a winning issue. More than just a necessity to prevent worse things from happening in next year’s elections. The suggestions from the SPD party leadership are well received, but still need to be translated from paper into reality.
And so back to the Jusos and their wishes for the parent party. The lead entry states: “The challenges of our time require real change and bold political action.” Party prose: Apparently the young people can do that too. But: “The traffic lights currently do not meet this requirement.” The SPD must oppose this and correct the course of the traffic lights.
So it’s not too late for a correction, says even the rebellious young people. Anyway.