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'The Social Democrats Need Continuity'

Germany's SPD spent Tuesday reshuffling its leadership following abysmal election results in the Sunday vote. But personnel changes have become more of the rule than the exception in the party. That needs to change, say German commentators.

In the hours after their electoral humiliation in Germany's general election on Sunday, the Social Democrats did their best to put a brave face on things. We'll have to take a close look at the results, they said. Drawing overly hasty consequences would only harm the party further was the message.

On Tuesday, though, the party jettisoned almost its entire leadership and set in motion exactly the kind of personnel merry-go-round it had been so eager to avoid. Franz Müntefering, the ageing SPD warhorse and current party chair, will soon be gone. Peer Steinbrück, the deputy SPD head who, as Chancellor Angela Merkel's finance minister, helped lead Germany away from the financial crisis abyss, has turned his back on politics. Hubertus Heil, the party's general secretary, threw in the towel on Tuesday. And even Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the party's candidate for chancellor, has backed away from laying claim to the party's chairmanship.

Even worse for the SPD, such chaos at the top has hit the party with depressing regularity in recent years. Four party chairmen have left the post in the last four years alone -- after having four in the first 45 years following World War II. Sunday's 23 percent result in the voting booth is yet the most recent reminder that the party also has a credibility problem with Germany's voters.

Just who might lead the party out of its deep miasma remains unclear. But on Tuesday, it looked as though the SPD might tap Sigmar Gabriel to give it his best shot. Gabriel is the outgoing environment minister and widely viewed as a formidably intelligent politician with a sharp tongue. Unfortunately, there are many who say that his talents do not necessarily extend to working well with people.

Still, it is unclear that the party has anyone else with the necessary experience for the job. German papers discuss the SPD's problems on Wednesday.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"This party wasn't just sent into the opposition on Sunday, it was toppled. The collapse smells of humiliation and degradation -- and, in party headquarters, of layoffs. There is not much pride left for Germany's oldest political party. Now, however, the search has begun for the old pride and a new leadership."

"Sigmar Gabriel? He is the wrong chairman. He is better at pounding the table than finding common ground and bringing people together. He is more of an agitator than a moderator. He can lead political campaigns, but isn't so good at leading people."

"What the SPD needs if it wants to return to its roots is continuity. For more than a hundred years the SPD has made a tradition of loyalty to its leader. August Bebel led the party for 30 years; Erich Ollenhauer for 11 years; Willy Brandt for 24 years. But since Hans-Jochen Vogel resigned in 1991, the party has elected a new leader eight times.... Good leadership, however, is irreplaceable. The crisis of the SPD is not just of a programmatic nature, but also one of leadership. The collapse of the party's leadership culture, which has continued now for 18 years, is symptomatic of a party that has lost its footing."

The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

"By rapidly installing a new leadership, the SPD wants to quickly put its problems behind it. That is badly needed, but it is not enough. The SPD also needs to find a program that everyone in the party can back. The SPD only has a chance in the opposition if it presents itself as a party that stands for growth, fair salaries and for the bottom third of society."

"Reason is necessary, but so too is passion. Sigmar Gabriel showed during the campaign that he possesses both. When he talks about ecological industrial policies and takes on the nuclear lobby, people cheer him on. And that could be his chance. Together with the pragmatist and moderator Frank-Walter Steinmeier as leader of the opposition, Gabriel can use his rhetorical abilities to show the SPD the way forward."

The conservative paper Die Welt writes:

"Sigmar Gabriel as SPD chair is a man from the party's past who could be able to show the way into the future. Gabriel has executive experience at both the state and federal levels, but more than anything he is a true-blue politician and likely the best speaker in his party. Such qualities are needed in the opposition."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"A party that is defeated so dramatically at the polls as the SPD was on Sunday has to react quickly and with self-criticism. That means it must show that it is prepared for a radical new beginning, both from a personnel standpoint and when it comes to the party platform. That happened on Tuesday, but only halfway."

"Frank-Walter Steinmeier's backing away from the party chair position was a necessary emergency measure. Had the SPD installed its failed chancellor candidate at the head of the party, it would have seemed like an insult of the German voting public -- and it would have led to the party's continued freefall."

"The SPD needs a leadership that is less bound up with its Schröder past. The new leaders need to prepare the way for cooperation with the Greens and with the Left Party."

Charles Hawley