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How the left-wing of the SPD are still trying to sabotage a new government

At the weekend the Social Democrats (SPD) voted to continue coalition talks with Angela Merkel’s conservatives. But the left-wing of the party believe they can still collapse the talks.

Published: 24 January 2018 16:40 CET
How the left-wing of the SPD are still trying to sabotage a new government
Kevin Kühnert. Photo: DPA

It was an incredibly close-run thing. On Sunday 372 of the 642 delegates at the SPD party congress voted to approve the results of preliminary talks on reforming a grand coalition with Merkel’s Christian Union.

The vote came as a huge relief for party leader Martin Schulz, who claimed that he had achieved “excellent” results at the end of the week-long negotiations.

But even agreeing to enter talks with Merkel marked a highly controversial U-turn from Schulz.

Immediately after the national election back in September, he claimed that the SPD would go into opposition. After four years as the junior partner in the government, the centre-left party had lost 40 seats in the Bundestag, scoring its worst post-war result.

But the situation changed when coalition talks between Merkel and two small parties – the Greens and the Free Democrats – collapsed in late Novemebr. Facing huge pressure from the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Schulz agreed to enter talks so that Germany could form a new government after months of deadlock.

But some in the SPD never accepted this logic. Most prominently, Kevin Kühnert, the leader of the party’s youth wing Jusos, vocally rejected any new deal with Merkel, saying that a re-run of the election would be the best thing for German democracy.

In the lead up to the party conference, Kühnert toured the country trying to persuade delegates that they should reject the preliminary coalition agreement.

After just failing to sway party delegates, the Jusos and allies on the left of the party have developed a new tactic.

Once the SPD leadership have agreed on the final terms of a coalition contract with the CDU/CSU, they will put the deal to party members to vote upon. To try and ensure a 'no' vote, elements within the Jusos are attempting to persuade people to join the party in the hope that they will then vote down a deal.

Under the provocative slogan “pay €10 and stop the grand coalition” the Jusos are fighting an online campaign to attract young members. SPD membership costs €5 per month, implying that the Jusos are encouraging people to just join the party for two months in order to block a deal with Merkel.

The strategy seems to be working. Between Sunday and Tuesday, some 1,847 people applied for party membership online.

Lars Klingbeil, the SPD general secretary said that he encouraged new members to join the party.

“But what isn’t okay is when people say: join the party for ten euros and then stay two months, vote against the coalition and then leave again,” he added.

According to Die Zeit, the party hierarchy are now fighting back. At the start of next week they plan to agree on a deadline for the date by which one must have joined the party in order to have the right to vote on the coalition deal, the paper reported on Wednesday.

Even Kühnert has distanced himself from the controversial Jusos campaign, which is being led to by the youth-wing in North Rhine-Westphalia. He told the Rheinische Post that people should not join the party for strategic reasons.

“We only want new members who share our core principles and want to join out of conviction,” he said.

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POLITICS

ANALYSIS: What’s at stake in Germany’s eastern state elections?

After success in Thuringia and Saxony, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) may well come in first in another eastern state election this Sunday. We spoke with a political scientist to analyse what's at stake as Brandenburg goes to the polls.

Published: 19 September 2024 09:11 CEST
ANALYSIS: What's at stake in Germany's eastern state elections?

German politics’ “eastern September” is set to finally end Sunday – with more ruminations and reflections likely to come about the recent fortunes of the far-right AfD at the ballot box.

If current polls are anything to go by, the AfD could come in first in the eastern state encircling Berlin – which counts Potsdam as its capital.

After overtaking the governing Social Democrats (SPD) in a recent shock poll, the party is currently at around 28 percent, compared to the SPD on 25 percent. The centre-right Christian Democrats come in at 16 percent in the latest poll and the left-populist Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – named after its founder – charts in at 14 percent.

The remaining parties come in much lower – with the Greens, Left and liberal Free Democrats all facing possible ejection from the state parliament.

Another victory for the AfD – or even a strong showing should the SPD still manage a narrow surprise win – will certainly boost the far-right’s confidence, after it came in first in Thuringia and second in Saxony earlier this month, following state elections that saw all three of Germany’s federally governing parties take massive losses.

Thuringia and Saxony results will likely hang over Brandenburg on Sunday – with Germany’s governing parties, many everyday Germans, and foreigners all watching with some trepidation. Here’s what to watch out for following the Brandenburg result.

READ ALSO: ‘Political earthquake’ – What the far-right AfD state election win means for Germany 

A newly confident AfD insists it must be part of government

The AfD has repeatedly argued that it must be considered as a possible coalition partner to join German governments – whether at the federal, state, or local level. 

“There are no politics without the AfD,” its co-leader Tino Chrupalla said following the Thuringia results. However, all other parties have explicitly refused to work with the AfD to form a governing coalition – meaning that as high as its results this month have been, they fall well short of the absolute majority that would be required to govern alone.

READ ALSO: ‘We need change’: Germany’s far-right eyes power after state election win

However, its getting more difficult to form coalitions to keep the AfD out, with the centre-right CDU in Thuringia even open to governing with the leftwing populist BSW after mainstream parties like the Greens and FDP were thrown out of state parliament entirely.

University of Mainz political scientist Kai Arzheimer, who specialises in the German far-right, says whether the far-right ever get into a German government or not depends mostly on whether – and how – the CDU is willing to work with the AfD.

Thuringia election results on a screen

People watch the first exit polls results for Thuringia’s state elections come in at the State Parliament in Erfurt on September 1st, 2024. Photo by Joerg CARSTENSEN / AFP

“For the time being, it should be able to form coalitions against the AfD, even if they are rather awkward,” says Arzheimer, who adds that even the different regional chapters of the CDU may have different opinions about working with the AfD.

“Within the eastern state parties of both the CDU and the FDP, there seems to be some appetite for coming to an arrangement with the AfD. While a formal coalition would probably split either party, we have already seen some tentative moves towards an informal cooperation.”

Ultimately, the Brandmauer or “firewall” concept in German politics – in which all other parties refuse to work with the AfD – may end up coming under increasing stress on the back of eastern state election results, where governing with the far-right no longer becomes unthinkable.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Could the far-right AfD ever take power in Germany?

What the mainstream parties take from eastern election results

It’s probably no coincidence that Germany’s ruling government decided to re-institute border controls at its land borders with other EU states shortly after the AfD topped the Thuringia state poll, according to Arzheimer, who says the elections are just the latest in a number of things at work when if comes to Germany’s migration debate.

“The border controls, the plans for the stricter enforcement of repatriation orders, and most of all the government’s harsher rhetoric are as much a reaction to Saxony and Thuringia as they are an attempt to control the fallout from the Solingen knife attack and a response to the whole ‘debate’ on immigration,” he says.

“Many experts seem to agree that they are neither practical nor that useful, and introducing them more or less overnight smacks of a degree of panic.”

READ ALSO: Should foreign residents in Germany be concerned about far-right AfD win?

Polls conducted following the election found that migration and internal security issues were big drivers of the AfD vote – despite these being issues for the national, rather than regional, government. 

Of the AfD voters in Thuringia, more than 70 percent said either migration or crime and internal security played the largest role in influencing their vote. Slightly less than ten percent said social security. Despite the AfD’s pro-Russian views, only three percent of AfD voters in Thuringia said Germany’s support of Ukraine decisively influenced their votes.

Besides the mainstream parties like the SPD reacting with spur-of-the-moment migration policies, the Brandenburg result may end up putting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz from within his own SPD.

Brandenburg SPD’s Dietmar Woidke may still be able to hold onto the premiership, but he has said he will resign if he doesn’t beat the AfD outright. Should he lose, calls may grow louder within the SPD for Scholz to resign himself – or at least declare that he won’t stand as a chancellor candidate again.

READ ALSO: How an explosive row over immigration has divided Germany

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