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'The SPD Still Has to Fight for its Survival'

At their first national conference after defeat in September's federal elections, Germany's Social Democrats promised a fresh start. A new, younger leadership said they would boldly reclaim the political center. But commentators wonder where the Social Democrats can actually go from here.

A rousing speech by the new leader of the beleagured Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, was followed by rapturous applause and standing ovations last weekend. Gabriel was addressing the party faithful at the SPD's three-day national conference in Dresden. In the speech Gabriel warned against a swing to the left and said that the party should reclaim the political center instead.

Outside of the pep rally rhetoric, with speeches being given by both old and new leadership, the SPD also called for the introduction of a tax on wealth in Germany. The conference comes after the SPD's disastrous defeat at national elections on Sept. 27 which saw them attract just 23 percent of the vote, the lowest in the veteran party's post-war history. The conference saw one generation of party leadership officially resign their posts as a new generation took their place. The older leadership was mostly considered to be on the more conservative, or centrist, side of the veteran center-left party. The new leadership now has much soul searching to do about what direction the party should take.

After four years in a coalition government with Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), who remain in power with the business friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), the Social Democrats were widely seen to have lost their way and tarnished their image. Adding to their woes, were unpopular welfare reforms that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who first led the SPD to power in 1998, had introduced as well as the fact that disenchanted members had left to help found the far-left Left party.

As a result the SPD's membership has been decimated and its share of the German electorate's votes severely reduced. Which is doubtless why Gabriel's rousing speech to 500 delegates at the conference was so welcome. During the conference, the SPD also elected a new general secretary, Andrea Nahles. The party's former candidate for chancellor, Frank-Walter Steinmeier is now the party's parliamentary leader.

German newspapers on Monday assess Gabriel's impassioned speech and agree that the party needs to work out where it currently stands on the German political scene. Most editorials argue that its search for a new identity is only just beginning.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"The dilemma that the Social Democrats face has not yet been fully outlined. Over the next few years the comrades will not be able to avoid questions that they already faced when they were part of the coalition government -- questions that they had already answered to their own detriment, while they were in power. How long does a person have to work before they become eligible for the pension? How much money can an unemployed person with children get by on? How much do decent and dignified living conditions cost? And who, in our society, is going to pay for all of that?"

"Now that they're in opposition the answers -- by a political party which, in the eyes of its followers, has lost credibility -- to these questions will change. The fact that that old idea about a tax on wealth has been brought up again is a taste of things to come and indicates that a large part of the SPD wants to move to the left."

"Then again, where is the left wing in German social democracy these days? During the past few years' unforgiving battles on the wings, the fighting was never about those essential questions. More often it was about influence, jealousy, animosity and one-upmanship. These days, anyone who argues against selling the national railways because of safety concerns is not necessarily a left winger. And anyone who comes out against unregulated freedom on the Internet is not necessarily from the right wing."

"Sigmar Gabriel, a speaker just as powerful as any other of the party's more colorful leaders, wants to change the SPD's thinking about these old fashioned categories. He maintains that anyone who stands for a just society, for freedom, responsibility and solidarity, is coming from the left -- but that that does not mean having to give up the center. That's clever -- after all he doesn't want to see his party ripped to shreds by both the CDU and the Left Party. However, it still isn't clear where exactly he is taking the SPD."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The clearest, cleanest explanation for the SPD's disastrous election results, for its weakness in the German states and for the shrinking party membership was given by former party chairman Franz Müntefering during his farewell speech at the party conference. 'We stood for too much that was past, we were out of fashion,' he said."

"His statement describes the outward impression people have of the party and the fact that most of the party's leaders, who have dominated the SPD for the past 20 years, were born between 1940 and 1950. That older generation did not let any younger competition through. But over the weekend in Dresden, that generation ceded their posts."

"Sigmar Gabriel, the new chairman of the SPD, is 19 years younger than his predecessor -- and he seems to have realized that the party must, once again, find its feet in society's ebb and flow. Gabriel succeeded in thrilling his audience -- his weapons of choice were attacks on the CDU and the FDP, or what he describes as the 'political right wing.' He also suggested a new definition of the 'political center' was necessary. That definition was not static, he said, it could be reshaped -- as the party had succeeded in reshaping it in the past. Gabriel wanted to fight for that new interpretation of the center, he said."

"Gabriel was convincing with his suggestions. But whether those suggestions can be put to work in the context of German political reality has yet to be seen. Gabriel's success lies therein. And just rolling up your sleeves and saying that you plan to set to work is not enough. In the past few years Angela Merkel has also done everything possible to avoid having her own party pushed into the right-wing corner. Unfortunately for the SPD, she has also defined the political center."

The financial daily Handelsblatt writes:

"The SPD lives! Well, a little bit anyway. The good news is that, with his excellent rhetorical skills, new leader Sigmar Gabriel gave his party something of a transfusion. New blood, if you like. The bad news is: the SPD still has to fight for its survival."

"In fact some of the delegates acted as though they were under the influence of psychotropic drugs. First the party cheered the fact that it was changing its leadership almost completely. Then, in the next moment, they cheered for those leaving their posts, as though it was the high point of their political careers."

"In their doubt and despair the Social Democrats often cling to symbols and speeches. After their disastrous results in the European parliamentary elections, they cheered former chancellor candidate, Frank-Walter Steinmeier for his conference speech. Then, in the run up to German national elections, they declared that the result of Steinmeier's televised debate with Angela Merkel was a turning point in their campaign -- even though the voters saw it differently. And now they are celebrating their new leader as 'Siggy Pop.' Because the comrades are the way they are, everything now depends on Gabriel."

Conservative newspaper Die Welt writes:

"In his speech, Gabriel told his party that 'Nobody gets rich all on their own. There is a lot more involved in the creation of wealth: a land with a peaceful society, with culture, with economic and educational opportunities.'"

"Gabriel said things that some people want to hear. He said that there are managers who are suffering in this economic crisis. He said that a state-provided basic income that comes without any conditions and without any effort was wrong in a society like ours. And he is right about that."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"One of the advantages that the SPD -- and its new leadership -- now has, is that being in opposition allows them plenty of time for them to find themselves. The new boss, whom some have decried as an opportunist, has shown that he can enthuse the party faithful. However, when it comes to a new manifesto, the SPD's 'new beginning' has been deferred -- with the exception of the decision on the wealth tax."

"It is also clear that it's not going to be business-as-usual when it comes to the question of the German pension starting at 67. The next few months will indicate exactly how far Gabriel and the SPD are going to move away from decisions made during their time in power (with the CDU). The decisions made at this national conference give them all sorts of options and plenty of room to move. However they also give the party plenty of opportunities for more infighting."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

The SPD left plenty of important topics out of the discussion in Dresden. Not too much was said on subjects like migration, climate change, education or family issues. In the new party leadership -- which is 45 strong -- there is not one single immigrant. The quota of women in the party is carefully considered but any search for the corresponding number of women in positions of power is futile. The new party secretary is Andrea Nahles -- but she really didn't have that much to say compared to the strong new, masculine leader, Sigmar Gabriel, who was so celebrated in Dresden."

"In Dresden the party seemed to focus mainly on political points of difference and everything was discussed in the light of the following question: How many corrections of course do we need to make to the left? Which of them are politically opportune? And which are not?"

"While the new CDU-FDP government gets ever more enmeshed in its arguments about tax cuts, it is losing sight of other important matters and opening the field up to attacks from the opposition parties. And what is the SPD doing while all that is going on? They're fighting about tax rates too."

-- Cathrin Schaer