Germany’s Social Democrats. Beck’s battle

Date: 20/05/06

A new leader takes over a troubled political party

"THEN come, comrades, rally--and the last fight let us face." These words from the Internationale have seldom been more suited to Germany's Social Democrats (SPD). Last weekend the party chose Kurt Beck, premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, as its new chairman. He was the only plausible candidate after his predecessor, Matthias Platzeck, had resigned earlier in the year on health grounds. The task facing Mr Beck is immense: the SPD risks losing its status as a "people's party".

One might expect the party to be in better shape. It managed almost to pull even with the Christian Democrats (CDU) in last year's federal election, and it is now ruling in a "grand coalition" with the CDU. In state elections in March it did quite well. Yet the SPD is in its "worst post-war crisis", says Manfred Gullner of Forsa, a polling firm. Indeed, the party increasingly looks like a head without a body: only five states still have an SPD premier, and many of its erstwhile bastions in the big cities are now controlled by the CDU.

It will be hard to turn this around. Germany's oldest party is like a church that is losing its faithful, lacks trained clergy and is groping for a new doctrine. Since 1990, membership has dropped by some 40%, to 580,000. There is little political talent waiting in the wings. And the party has yet to come up with a programme that responds convincingly to changes in the world since German unification.

Nor has it done the SPD much good to be part of the ruling coalition. The government's popularity is ebbing in any case, but what it has sticks mostly to the CDU and its chancellor, Angela Merkel--not least because she sometimes sounds like a Social Democrat herself. It is awkward for the SPD to differentiate itself without endangering the coalition. In recent opinion polls, the SPD has sunk to 30% nationally, a full ten points behind the CDU.

Mr Beck may yet revive a party that is still suffering in the wake of Gerhard Schroder, the former SPD chancellor. Mr Schroder distanced himself from his party and pushed ahead with some economic reforms heedless of its loss of popularity. Mr Beck is not only deeply rooted in the party, but also a good reflection of what remains its core constituency: he rose from humble roots as a trained electrician. He promised during his speech at the congress to start a new membership drive and to listen again to the rank and file.

Although he is good with people, Mr Beck is less at ease with policies. His speech to the congress consisted mostly of standard SPD fare, leaving it to his short-lived predecessor, Mr Platzeck, to outline a vision for the future. Showing that he will be much missed, Mr Platzeck argued that the SPD should bid farewell to the traditional welfare state, which tried to achieve equality through transfer payments, and fight instead for one that "makes provisions" to avoid inequality in the first place, for instance by investing more in education and the integration of immigrants.

Even so, it would be wrong to underestimate Mr Beck. He has been re-elected three times in Rhineland-Palatinate, most recently with an absolute majority in parliament. His homely approach, cautious support for reform and will to get things done could appeal to voters. He would not be the first earthy, well-rounded leader from the state to prove Germany's highbrow press wrong: when Helmut Kohl became CDU leader in 1973, most pundits declared that he had only a limited future.

Article discusses the challenges facing the new leader of Germany's Social Democrats, Kurt Beck.