Coalition could be two-edged sword for Germany’s SPD

World
Europe

As the acting chairman of the Social Democrats announced his party would join Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc in government again, Willy Brandt was watching on.

The late SPD mayor of Berlin and former German Chancellor won the Nobel Peace prize in 1971 for his work in trying to reunite a country divided by the Berlin Wall. Brandt’s statue now stands in the atrium of SPD headquarters.

The stakes are less high for his successors in 2018 as this is no standoff between democracy and communism. Critics within the SPD of another grand coalition frame the next four years as a fight to save social democracy though.

Dietmar Nietan (L), treasurer of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) party, and SPD members look on as Olaf Scholz (R), interim leader, comments on the decision ofe SPD party members to join a new coalition government with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives at the SPD headquarters in Berlin on March 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

It has been a bad run for the center-left in Europe of late. In France last year, the Socialists were trounced; in Italy this weekend, polls suggest the Democratic Party will also struggle.

Last September, Germany’s SPD scored its lowest ever election result and decided the best way to save itself was to head back into opposition.

Ultimately, it changed its mind: on Sunday 66 percent of members voted in favor of heading back into government.

In return, the SPD’s supporters want their leaders to push social democratic principles into policy more assertively in this coming four-year term.

Their success in doing that in Europe’s most politically influential member state could bolster center-left counterparts elsewhere. Failure could turn a bad streak into a more permanent decline.