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Talkin' 'bout a Revolution

Germany's Social Democrats Looking for Leadership

Their poll numbers stink. Internal bickering is constant front-page news. And now, speculation that some in the SPD are preparing to overthrow leader Kurt Beck is rampant. But with Beck gone, who would lead the party?

It was just last week that Kurt Beck, leader of Germany's Social Democrats, finally exploded. After months of falling poll numbers and almost constant media criticism of his leadership, the governor of the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate had finally had enough.

"It is your decision whether anyone in this country has ever been treated as poorly as I have," Beck complained to a group of journalists accompanying him on a tour of his state. "For my part, I can't remember anyone being belittled as much as I have been." Later in his tirade, he said "at the very least, I would like to be taken seriously."

But if Beck had been hoping that his outburst would slow down the steady stream of headlines predicting that the party will either jettison him as leader or put somebody else up as chancellor candidate for the 2009 elections, this weekend will have been a disappointing one.

On Saturday, SPIEGEL ran a story alleging that the SPD's conservative wing was considering an attempt to push Beck out of his party leadership role by the end of this year. According to the report, the conservatives hope that current Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be named the party's candidate for chancellor and will take over Beck's job.

It was not the first report indicating that some in the party would like to see the back of Beck. Indeed, in his eruption last week, Beck complained of some trying to "pressure him out" and that he was getting tired of having to "sweep up the shards of the party's image" every Monday after a weekend of damaging comments from SPD members.

This Monday is no different. Steinmeier limited himself to calling the SPIEGEL report "complete rubbish." Beck, however, went a bit further. Referring to the anonymous nature of the so-called "putsch plans," Beck said: "If you are going to criticize, then you have to stand behind it with your name and your face." He said that the allegations are "either untrue or disloyal and cowardly." But, he went on, he would be happy to confront his detractors. "I will not hide behind a tree just because it is more comfortable there," he said.

Despite the vociferous denials, it is not difficult to imagine that the party's conservative wing is unhappy. For months, Beck has been saying that he is unwilling to work together with the far-left Left Party -- something that is considered taboo by many in Germany due to the East German communist past of many of the Left Party's leading members. But for just as long, he and his party have been sending mixed messages.

At the beginning of the year, Beck endorsed a plan by Hesse SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti to try getting elected as the state's governor with the help of Left Party votes. Just last month, the SPD nominated center-left intellectual Gesine Schwan to run against current German President Horst Köhler in presidential elections set for next May -- a parliamentary vote that Schwan could only win were Left Party delegates to support her. And earlier this month, reports emerged that there had been contact between the SPD's left wing and the Left Party.

And on Monday in the tabloid Bild, Schwan said that she can imagine a time when the Left Party and the SPD will work more closely together. "There will likely be a time when the two parties become closer," she said. "At the moment, the fundamental differences in many central areas are too large."

Still, as many are pointing out on Monday, it is hard to imagine a putsch against Beck at the moment. There is simply no one available to take over the party reins. Even those who support Steinmeier as a possible SPD chancellor candidate don't want to see him at the head of the party.

After all, the party's bad image could easily rub off on him. It's better, they say, to keep Beck around to absorb the negative press.

cgh/SPIEGEL