The calm before the storm? Party conference gives SPD leaders a vote of confidence
Published: Friday, Dec 8th 2023, 16:40
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It is the invisible elephant in the room: while the budget crisis has been dominating the headlines in political Berlin for weeks, the delegates of the German chancellor's party, the SPD, kept a conspicuously low profile at the party conference on Friday.
Hardly any attacks against the "traffic light" partner FDP, which had recently questioned social benefits. The Chancellor also got off lightly at first. Instead, there was demonstrative support for the party leaders in particular: Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil are to lead the Social Democrats for another two years.
Klingbeil received 85.6% of the valid votes at the federal party conference, only slightly less than in 2021 with 86.3%. With 82.6 percent, Esken achieved a significantly better result than two years ago with 76.7 percent. In view of the mood of crisis and the SPD's miserable poll ratings, this is a clear vote of confidence.
SPD almost in election campaign mode
In the first two years of their joint term of office, Esken and Klingbeil saw their main task as supporting Olaf Scholz as the first SPD head of government in 16 years in the difficult three-party alliance with the Greens and FDP. However, resounding election defeats in Hesse and Bavaria, dissatisfaction with the "traffic light" approach to migration policy and, most recently, the budget crisis have led to unrest in the party and calls for the SPD to raise its profile.
At the party conference, it became clear that the SPD leadership has long been looking ahead to the next general election, which, as things stand, will take place in 2025. In their speeches, Esken and Klingbeil - party leaders of the largest governing party after all - attacked their political opponents as aggressively as if they were in opposition themselves. Esken accused the CDU of political vandalism. "With this Merz CDU, we truly have the most populist opposition of all time," she said. Klingbeil accused CDU leader Friedrich Merz of raving about the economic policy of the 1990s. "Friedrich of yesterday will never be the future of our country," he emphasized.
Next year will see the European elections, three state elections in eastern Germany and a number of local elections. The big question is: will the AfD's rise and the simultaneous fall of the traffic light party, which has been exacerbated by the current budget crisis, continue? In the latest federal election polls, the SPD is only polling between 14 and 17% - compared to 25.7% in the 2021 election. The three traffic light parties together have plummeted from 52% in 2021 to between 33 and 38% in nationwide polls today.
Vote on crisis levy for top earners
The SPD wants to score points against the Christian Democrats with tax increases for the super-rich and a relaxation of the debt brake. A key motion was put to the vote in the late afternoon, which also promises tax relief for 95% of the population. Top earners are to be asked to pay a temporary crisis levy. This is to affect all those who are subject to wealth tax, i.e. who have a taxable income of at least 277,826 euros per year. In addition, inheritances and gifts are to be taxed more heavily so that multi-millionaires and billionaires contribute more to financing the common good.
The party youth had initially vehemently pushed for the debt brake to be abolished. "Nothing threatens the future of our generation more than this damned debt brake," said Juso leader Philipp Türmer. The Jusos and the party executive later agreed on the wording that a rigid limit on borrowing, as currently contained in constitutions, would be rejected. "They prevent investment and impair the state's ability to act."
Keeping quiet during the budget crisis talks
The party leadership emphasizes that these priorities had already been set before the historic debacle surrounding the federal budget. But now the demands are likely to be all the more topical. Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) have been struggling for weeks to plug a 17 billion euro hole in the budget for 2024. The SPD would have liked to have reached an agreement before the party conference.
Now Scholz will probably have to address the 600 delegates on Saturday without a finished budget in his pocket. One gets the impression that the delegates feel compelled to keep quiet the day before. Just don't torpedo the negotiations of the traffic light leaders. The mood is actually quite charged - especially since the Spiegel title with the Scholz quote "We must finally deport on a grand scale". The government's course on migration goes against the grain of the left wing of the party.
On Friday, however, Scholz was initially a supporting actor. When he was greeted, he received polite applause, but the delegates remained seated. Two years ago, the party conference had greeted the newly elected chancellor in a completely different way.
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