Insignificance

As mentioned before, 2021 is a super-election year with six state elections and one federal election. For the latter, on September 24, Germany's political parties are already in their starting blocks.

The party I favored mostly during my life was the Social Democrats (SPD); Germany's oldest party was founded in Leipzig on May 23, 1863.

In the 19th century, the SPD was the working class's party and opposed Bismarck. Although he had the Social Democrats forbidden between 1878 to 1890, the party's followers remained loyal.

So the Iron Chancellor changed tactics and tried to cut the ground under the social feet of the SPD by introducing a state health care and old age system for the working class from 1884 to 1891. These two pillars of social security still exist but, with time, were enlarged and are now available to all Germans.

The SPD was the supporting party of the Weimar Republic after World War One and the only party voting against Hitler's Ermächtigungsgesetz (enabling act) in 1933.

After the Second World War, the Social Democrats were one crucial pillar of democracy in the Federal Republic. On a few occasions, they even became the strongest party in the Bundestag (parliament) and provided the chancellor, i.e., Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder.

However, the blue-collar workers, SPD's traditional electorate, melted down with time. Today some people regard the party program as not being socialist enough. Other voters found their harbor with the Greens. So the once-proud SPD is down from 45% in 1972 to a mere 16% today.

What is the present electoral platform of Germany's GOP? Social democrats want to be social, digital, and climate-neutral, i.e., progressive. Their "Program for the Future" consists of 48 pages and is peppered with sometimes concrete ideas:

They demand a speed limit of 130 km/h on Autobahns.

In areas with a "tight housing market," they want a rent freeze.

Students and trainees shall travel free of charge on local public transport.

Landlords must pay the CO₂ price of their apartments.

The government must guarantee the supply of gigabit internet lines.

Public buildings shall be fitted with solar panels.

Top managers are to receive a maximum of 15 times the average wage in the company.

There shall no longer be fixed-term employment contracts without reason.

There should be a legal right to 24 home office days a year.

There will be a headwind from those who don't like to be called regressive: Car drivers, landlords, local authorities, and employers. But the real problem is that the triad of "social, digital, and climate-neutral" is not catching on.

All democratic parties claim the topic climate for themselves. The SPD wants to make Germany climate-neutral by 2050 - the Greens are already discussing a 2035 target.

Digitization is not a winning issue for the Social Democrats either. Gigabit lines in rural areas are long overdue. Besides, the SPD's concrete proposals on digitization mainly concern data protection and control of Internet corporations.

That leaves social justice. Even though the SPD is now calling for a citizen's income, a minimum wage of twelve euros, a wealth tax, and a transaction tax, they have been left behind regarding content. The Die Linke (the Left Party) is showing much more edge - and is already calling for a 13-euro minimum wage. The SPD wants to keep the pension level at 48 percent, and the Left Party wants to raise it to 53 percent. Many people agree that Die Linke is more committed.

The fatal thing for the Social Democrats is that other parties always are one step ahead of it.

One slogan greatly influenced the voter in previous federal elections, "Auf den Kanzler kommt es an," i.e., which major party had the most convincing person to become Germany's chancellor.

While the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Greens still are cagey about their candidate for chancellor in the upcoming federal elections, the Social Democrats rushed ahead by putting the present Vice-Chancellor and Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on the pedestal.

Markus Söder and Olaf Scholz (©Sven Simon/IPON/imago images)

During last Wednesday's video conference on Corona policy between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 governors, it came to a showdown between Olaf Scholz and the Christian Democrats' hopeful Bavarian Ministerpräsident (governor) Markus Söder.

Backed by Angela, Olaf made it clear, "No one needs to dream that the federal government will set up an account from which everything will be paid. There will be no consensus other than proportional financing of Corona expenditures by the federal government and the states. ""

Markus Söder asked why Scholz was so upset since it wasn't his money. Olaf coolly dismissed him, "No, it's the taxpayers' money." This emphatically cool dripping put Markus into a rage, who is not used to much contradiction in Bavaria. He likes it even less from a Social Democrat.

"I don't know what you've been drinking," he insulted Scholz, "You're not the chancellor." He got into a bit of a tirade, attendees report. "You are not the king of Germany or ruler of the world," Söder raged, "There's no need for you to grin like a Smurf. " 

Let's face it, Scholz's chances are zero to become Germany's next chancellor, and the Social Democrats will be insignificant. Too sad.

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