The rise and the decline of german SPD

At the recent german parlimentary elections, after long time Socialists reached a historical defeat and hit the opposition benches

At 6 pm, on Sunday, September 27th, a deathly silence plumped down on the house Willy-Brandt, th siege of the German social democrat Party (SPD), in Berlin. Frightened activists, speechless, listened to the announcement of the polls results "taken out of ballot boxes". Under the leadership of foreign secretary, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the SPD has seen the catastrophy : 22,9 % of the votes, in drop of more than eleven points with regard to the general election of 2005 (34,2 %). His worst historic result ever. He lost one third of his parliament members in the battle.

The defeat itself, even though perhaps predictable, nevertheless aches. Preliminary polls evoked a slight rise in the vote. Great deal of party members had begun dreaming in a loud voice of a renewal of the huge coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDU). It boiled down to none: after eleven years of being in the business the social democrats filled well to the brim even the opposition benches.

Following this waxy complexion, Frank-Walter Steinmeier quickly appeared in front of the crowd of the sympathizers gathered in the office of the party. - It is a bitter day for the German social democracy, there are no means to present favorably this result -, he recognized. Often mocked for his lack of charisma, the foreign minister had nevertheless led a pugnacious campaign these last weeks. On Sunday evening, he said his intention to lead a belligerent opposition, worried of forbidding "the social equality". Warm applauses but also wrinkled smiles immediately filled out the room. Franz Müntefering, the haggard face, the leader of the SPD, beside Steinmeier was anxious to underline: - We are not a party of past. -

After the earthquake of Sunday, the social democrats are nevertheless going to be engaged in a painful self-examination. Settled for voucher in the German political game three years after its creation, the young party of the radical left, formed of disappointed SPD members and by the former ex-GDR communists, reached a very promising 12 % score. - Its best historic result, - decreed quietly ironic Lafontaine. In 2005, the PDS, the ancestor of Die Linke, had gathered 8,7 % of the votes.

Flanked by a battalion of 76 parliament members, Oskar Lafontaine, the former head of the SPD, continues in his roleplaying the troublemaker during the Bundestag debates. - We are the party which will be so consistent in our efforts of imminent social State reconstitution -, he immediately announced. The ballot of Sunday reveals SPD in the middle of a crisis of identity. Four years of big coalition left it on their knees. Penalized by Mrs Merkel's "gauchisation", it lost its outlines by supporting reforms of the right. Mr Steinmeier tried these last months to return to the fundamentals of the social democracy with a program anchored extremely to the left. But the recipe had false ingredients.

Went back to the opposition, the SPD is going to have to reinvent. At the party siege, on Sunday evening, the activists did not know about at which foot to dance. - It is a disaster. We are going to become weak as the socialists in France -, a parliamentary assistant worried. Furthermore, an old social democrat, a retired professor, asserted quite the opposite: - it is good thing to finish with the big coalition. -

- The problem is because there are not charismatic personalities anymore -, said the other one, by glancing at the statue of the ex-chancellor Willy Brandt throning in the middle of the room. Will Frank-Walter Steinmeier continues to represent the SPD until the battle of 2013? The misfortunate candidate immediately claimed the presidency of the parliamentary group. Though still remains to see if he will not be denied by the leftiest party wing, which sees him as a too moderated character without the winner temper and an opponent blocking any alliance with Die Linke, without which the social democrats risk to impose themselves as an endless opposition force.