The three-day SPD federal party conference ends on the second Sunday of Advent in the Berlin Exhibition Center. The Social Democrats are voting for their leadership with large majorities a strong signal of unity. At the same time They adopt a series of demands that position the party clearly to the left of its own government – from social and tax policy to an actively steering state to questions of immigration or climate policy. Changes in course in the federal government are not an issue, regardless of disastrous poll numbers. Hardly anyone outside of the party’s junior ranks wants to hear criticism of the Chancellor.
1. The Chancellor can heat
According to the surveys, the Chancellor’s reputation is at a low point and the SPD is not doing much better. But anyone who expected Olaf Scholz to face harsh criticism at the Berlin exhibition center will be proven wrong. Even before the head of government can address the delegates on Saturday, he is showered with a standing ovation, and even more so at the end of his hour-long speech. In essence, Scholz said nothing new. He neither shows a way to solve the acute budget crisis nor does the Chancellor reflect on how he and the SPD could lead the federal government more convincingly in the future.
But Scholz, who was once reviled by his party as chairman, delivers one of his best party conference speeches by assuring the audience that he will pursue social democratic ideas with all his might: from defending the welfare state against austerity proposals from the FDP and the Union and the fight for better wages through commitment for the preservation and establishment of new industrial jobs through to climate policy. Giving people reasonable “confidence” that the numerous and inevitable changes will lead to a good future is the best way to prevent the rise of the AfD. Assured that the SPD Chancellor is pursuing social democratic goals out of his own conviction, the delegates are downright enthusiastic: at least in the SPD there is now “confidence” again.
2. The Peace Party lives party peace
While Scholz does not have to face an election, the chairmen and the board will be re-elected. Regardless of the federal polls and the past state election defeats, Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken will be re-elected with scores above 80 percent. Esken, once considered too easy for the job by many inside and outside the party, is now entering her third term in office. General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, who spoke passionately to the delegates in the style of his time as Juso chairman, received more than 90 percent. The vice-chairmen didn’t have to worry about their results either, especially not Hubertus Heil with his almost 97 percent.
Is it a truce given the many attacks from outside? Rather not. The SPD has managed to resolve all conflicts and programmatic disputes strictly internally among the party and parliamentary group leaders. That was the basis of the 2021 election victory and the Social Democrats have internalized it: the SPD can only be successful if it is united to the outside world. The fact that she continues to manage cohesion is surprising given the poor survey results. But perhaps it is more like this: As long as the Social Democrats are in power, the world is always better from the comrades’ point of view than if someone else was the chancellor. But this attitude carries risks: the party conference hardly discussed why the SPD does not appeal to voters.
3. The Jusos are a power – with clear boundaries
After just a few years under Merkel, it was said about the CDU that it was a chancellor electoral club. The Juso delegates, who were disproportionately represented, may have felt that way when they vented their displeasure. One after another, members of the party’s junior ranks went on stage to convey their dissatisfaction to Olaf Scholz. Juso boss Philipp Türmer, still fresh in office, attests that the Chancellor has weak leadership and a lack of empathy. He hardly received any approval, and one speaker was even booed. The majority of delegates do not want to be told by young people how to fulfill the job of Chancellor in a complicated coalition.
Nevertheless, the Young Socialists left a mark at the party conference. Together with the left of the party, they are forcing the SPD to now demand a one-off wealth levy on the super-rich. You can also enforce a change in the SPD’s demand for a debt brake reform. Accordingly, there should no longer be a rigid upper brake on taking on debt. And they also achieved partial success in migration policy. There is no majority in favor of the demand for the abolition of the EU border protection agency Frontext and a rejection of external border procedures, which the EU asylum reform proposes. However, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser can hardly ignore many of her party’s minimum requirements for external border procedures in further negotiations on the Common European Asylum Policy (CEAS).
4. An SPD far to the left of the traffic lights
The party will become “louder” again a year and a half before the hot phase of the next federal election campaign, SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil announced in an interview with ntv.de. The key proposal “Together for a strong Germany” sets the direction: one million new jobs in climate-neutral sectors of the future, relief for 95 percent of income groups, higher taxation of large inheritances, more money for education. In addition, the SPD wants to significantly loosen the debt brake as soon as it sees a majority that will change the constitution.
With this program, the SPD is a party that has nothing at all in common with the FDP. A strong state that actively controls the economy, subsidizes key industries where necessary, advocates for a noticeably higher minimum wage and higher standard salaries and, despite the demographic challenges, does not force anyone to work for more than 45 years – with pensions rising in line with inflation and contribution rates remaining the same: With This doesn’t fit with the ideas of the FDP. This is also the real conflict behind the ongoing budget crisis. The SPD’s party conference resolutions point to the future, but the conflicting ideas of the coalition partners are now paralyzing the government alliance – and with it the entire country.
5. Rapprochement is a thing of the past, Russia is the enemy
One of Klingbeil’s core tasks in his first two years as party chairman was to reorganize the SPD’s foreign policy. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has necessitated nothing less than a break from the party’s previous Eastern policy. For the time being, there can only be security against Russia, not with the nuclear superpower in the very east of the European continent, another key proposal now states. He clearly acknowledges the party’s misjudgment of being able to contain Vladimir Putin’s empire through ever closer economic ties and ever larger gas imports. Klingbeil has now personally apologized in part for the fact that the party ignored warnings from smaller states in Eastern Europe for so long.
Party leader Rolf Mützenich admitted at the party conference that he had “completely underestimated” Putin’s imperial thinking. The SPD must admit to “mistakes” and “misunderstandings”. At the same time, it is clear from Mützenich and foreign policy expert Ralf Stegner how much the criticism of the SPD’s Russia policy in the past still hurts them. It is a “shame” to put the previous détente policy “in line with the war of aggression” on Ukraine, says Mützenich. Both also object to pointed demands made to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to make more weapons available to Ukraine. They are apparently not alone with this attitude: the chairman of the European Committee, Michael Roth, had repeatedly criticized Scholz’s reluctance – and surprisingly failed in the election for a place on the party’s executive committee.