The vote signals the SPD membership’s clear discontent with the party’s role in government
GERMANY’S BATTERED coalition is on shakier ground than ever after members of the Social Democratic Party , the junior partner to the Christian Democratic Union , elected two relatively unknown left-wingers as their leaders. On November 30th party officials announced that Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken had beaten the centrist duo of Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz by 53% to 45%, capping a campaign that had lasted nearly half a year.
. Despite a degree of policy success on matters like pensions and climate change, the SPD is struggling in the polls, well behind the Green Party and jostling for third place with the hard-right Alternative for Germany. It has lost around one-third of its support since the 2017 election, which was itself a low-water mark for the party.
Yet the result may not necessarily be terminal for the coalition. At the SPD’s annual congress, which begins on December 6th in Berlin, delegates must decide how to respond . Rather than simply announcing a walkout from government, the party could issue ultimatums to the CDU on matters like raising the minimum wage, reforming taxes, tightening climate policy and boosting public investment .
If the coalition does collapse, Mrs Merkel could opt to run a minority government for the rest of the parliamentary term. This option holds some attraction: the parliament has just approved the budget for 2020, and the absence of a troublesome coalition partner might actually make it easier for the chancellor to manage the CDU’s internal problems.
That helps explain the scepticism of the SPD’s establishment towards Mr Walter-Borjans and Ms Esken. Like many leftist parties the SPD has regularly had to balance internal tensions between idealists and realists. Lieutenants of Mr Scholz, whose political future is now in doubt, have long briefed that a vote against him would be a vote for political oblivion. Some may reasonably conclude from Saturday’s results that that is precisely what the party is now seeking.
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