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09/29/2009

As the full ramifications of the German Social Democrats crushing election defeat on Sunday begin to sink in, it seems that open season has been declared on the party's leadership. While party boss Franz Müntefering has already given notice that he will step down in November, there are now increasing calls from within the party ranks for a complete overhaul at the top of the party, with the Berlin branch of the party in particular looking for new faces at the top.

Germany's oldest party, founded when Bismarck was the Iron Chancellor and Kaiser Willhelm I ruled from his palace in Berlin, had its worst result since World War II on Sunday. The SPD only managed to win 23 percent of the vote, sending it into opposition after 11 years in government. Now it seems the younger generation could be poised to take over. Whoever leads the party is going to have to decide on its future identity, and deal with an expected push to the left and calls for closer cooperation with the far-left Left Party.

Pulling the Strings

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the 67-year-old Müntefering, said the party would present its new configuration within two weeks. When pushed on whether that this would include his own departure, he answered "you can assume that you are close to the truth." Yet it seems Müntefering wants to continue to have an influence over the new party leadership, which is to be voted on by the party at its conference in mid-November. It is clear that Müntefering would like to see the party's failed candidate for chancellor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier take over as his successor.

In the hour of defeat on Sunday night, Steinmeier already seemed to be laying claim to the role, saying he wanted to lead the opposition. On Tuesday afternoon he will make himself available to head the party's parliamentary group.

'N ew Faces' for a New Beginning

But not all in the party are enthused by the prospect of Steinmeier becoming the SPD leader. The party leader in Berlin, Michael Müller, speaking to RBB-Inforadio on Tuesday, criticized the haste with which the decision was being made over who should head the parliamentary group. He said the party needed time to breathe after the massive losses in the election. He also said that "new faces" were needed for a new beginning.

In Berlin, the SPD are already leading the charge for that new beginning. On Monday evening, according to RBB radio, the SPD in Berlin drafted a letter which said that a credible renewal would only be possible without Müntefering, Steinmeier and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, a man with leadership ambitions of his own, is reported to have been present at the meeting when the letter was drawn up. With state elections in Berlin slated for 2011, Wowereit and his colleagues are right to be worried. While the SPD across the country saw its vote slip by 11 percent, in the capital it lost 14 percent, the biggest slump in the country, pushing the party into second place behind the conservative Christian Democrats.

Wowereit, who rules with the far-left Left Party in a so-called red-red coalition in Berlin, has called for an end to the SPD's point blank refusal to countenance a similar coalition at the federal level. He told the SPD executive committee on Monday that although such cooperation shouldn't be automatic, "the taboo has to go. It doesn't make sense anymore." The SPD has seen many of its more left-wing supporters drift away to the Left Party, the result of a merger between the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) -- the successor party to the East German communists -- and the WASG, a party founded in 2005 by disgruntled former members of the SPD. While the Social Democrats have entered into state governments with the Left Party, they have refused to do so at a federal level. Yet with the Left Party establishing itself as a major player, garnering 11.9 percent of the vote on Sunday, that stance could become increasingly untenable if the SPD wants to return to power one day.

Steinmeier Well Placed for Top Job

Steinmeier, though, having served as Merkel's vice chancellor for the last four years, is the symbol of stasis. Still, he is likely in the poll position for the SPD's top job. Wowereit is likely weakened by the poor showing of the party in Berlin. Andrea Nahles, the popular and influential left-winger who is a deputy party leader, has already indicated that she is not yet interested in the role. While Sigmar Gabriel, who has served as envirmonment minister under Merkel and won praise for his election campaign focusing on the SPD's opposition to nuclear power, is not regarded as having a sufficient base within the party.

Whoever takes over, though, will face a difficult climb from Sunday's depths. It seems likely that the party will shift to the left and distance itself from the Agenda 2010 package of welfare reforms introduced under the Gerhard Schröder-led coalition of SPD and Greens. There are also tactical considerations. Many Social Democrats see this as the only way of setting the ground work for a possible coalition with the Left party and the Greens in 2013.

Steinmeier, though, stands in the way of such a shift. As Schröder's right-hand man in the Chancellery he was instrumental in drawing up the welfare reforms. At the meeting of the party's executive committee on Monday he is reported to have warned his colleagues that he would only stand for any leadership positions under certain conditions. If the party wanted to undo the reforms that he had developed and introduced, he said, then he would not be the right man for the job.