Merkel’s Embattled Ex-Partner Could Determine German Chancellor’s Fate Social Democratic Party, battered in September election, returns to spotlight after coalition talks fail By Andrea Thomas
https://www.wsj.com/articles/merkels-embattled-ex-partner-could-determine-german-chancellors-fate-1511290826
BERLIN—The fate of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, reeling from the collapse of coalition talks, could hinge on a party that has shed almost half its voters and lost every single general election over the past 15 years.
Ms. Merkel’s attempt to forge a disparate alliance of conservatives, free-marketers and environmentalists collapsed on Sunday, putting a spotlight on the Social Democratic Party, which suffered a searing September defeat at the polls.
The country’s president, conservative allies of Ms. Merkel and even prominent opposition figures this week called on the venerable center-left party to help solve the political crisis by joining Ms. Merkel in reassembling their “grand coalition” of ideological rivals.
SPD Chairman Martin Schulz, the party’s eighth leader in 18 years, has so far rejected the overtures. Andrea Nahles, the recently appointed parliamentary leader, said this week that her party wouldn’t act as Ms. Merkel’s “power-political reserve.”
But some experts say the SPD may not have a better option. Should it refuse to be wooed, the result could be snap elections, for which it is woefully unprepared.
“The SPD finds itself in a dilemma…it got caught on the wrong foot,” said Thorsten Faas, a political-science professor at Berlin’s Free University.
After delivering the party’s worst postwar election result, Mr. Schulz has lost authority. Two opinion polls released this week suggest the SPD wouldn’t do any better at the ballot box today.
As with other social-democratic parties in Europe, the 142-year-old SPD has yet to find a solution to the gradual loss of its old audience of blue-collar workers, civil servants and trade unionists.
In Germany, the demographic problem was compounded by the unpopular economic overhauls of Gerhard Schröder, which alienated the party’s left-wing base when he served as the latest Social Democratic chancellor from 1998-2005. Ms. Merkel’s embrace of center-left policies, including a minimum wage and same-sex marriage, also eroded support.
After the poor September election results, SPD leaders had hoped a four-year spell in opposition would re-energize the party and give it a good shot at the chancellery in 2021.
“The SPD has to be careful about its election results. If it falls below 20%, people will get nervous there,” said Tilman Mayer, politics professor at Bonn University. “To simply steal away and say we will only do opposition, that’s simply not enough. And I’m not sure this would be rewarded in snap elections.” CONTINUE AT SITE
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