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German Social Democrats pin hope on new leadership

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Almost 20 candidates are lining up for the job of leading Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) in a ballot that could decide the fate of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s grip on power. But while the SPD was once a model for social democrats around the world, the prospect of leading Germany’s oldest political party has dulled in recent years following a plunge in support. Candidates have until September 1 to join the leadership race, with Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz one of the few prominent SPD members gunning for the job.


Leadership hopefuls will present their case to the party’s 426,000 members over the course of 23 regional conferences, which will form the build-up to a special party conference in December, when the winner — or winners — will be formally elected.


In an attempt to breathe life into the ailing party, which sunk to a record low of 20.5 per cent in the 2017 national election, the Social Democrats have paved the way for dual leadership teams and are encouraging women to run.


It is the candidates’ commitment to either backing or abandoning the centre-left SPD’s coalition with Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) that has emerged as one of the key issues in the leadership race. “We have to see what else is possible with the CDU,” said Boris Pistorius, who is running alongside fellow state minister Petra Koepping.


But other candidates are not so happy with the status quo, which has seen the SPD prop up a CDU government for all but four of Merkel’s 14 years in power.


Party health spokesman Karl Lauterbach and Alexander Ahrens, mayor of the eastern city of Bautzen, are in favour of ending the coalition, which many SPD members see as contributing to the party’s decline. “We have a clear analysis of why the party is down,” said Dierk Hirschel, an economist with the service sector union Verdi, pointing to the SPD’s coalition with Merkel as preventing the party from pursuing a more comprehensive social policy.


Hirschel and his running mate, SPD lawmaker Hilde Mattheis, are campaigning for “a radical restart” for the SPD, whose history dates back to 1863. But any decision on the future of the CDU alliance could be taken out of the new leadership’s hands following two state elections on September 1.


The elections could result in the SPD losing its long-held grip on power in Brandenburg and crashing to below 10 per cent in Saxony, potentially increasing the clamour in the party to pull out of the CDU-led coalition. — DPA


Andrew McCathie


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