After Crushing Defeats, Social Democrats Try to Regroup

Germany's oldest party is suffering from an identity crisis that is driving its traditional voters away in droves. The Social Democrats (SPD) are caught between implementing reforms that economists say are necessary if the country wants to compete in the global marketplace and staying true to its fundamental values of protecting the welfare state and looking out for the interests of working people.

The strategy session of the SPD's executive committee seeks to draw a course out of the wilderness the party has been stumbling through for the past 18 months. It is also trying to quell a revolt in the party's left wing, which is demanding a radical policy course correction.

"We must keep to the current course," Rhineland-Palatinate's Premier Kurt Beck told reporters before going into the closed-door meeting. He called on the party to close ranks and not let the election defeats split the party in two.

In last week's European elections, the SPD lost around 2.8 million voters that supported the party five years earlier and its numbers slumped to 21.5 percent. That defeat was but a continuation of a disastrous series of electoral defeats the party has suffered over the past year and a half, as voters turn away from the traditional party of the working class. They are angered and alienated by Schröder's unpopular reforms that are meant to provide a kick-start to the German economy, which has been stagnant for three years.

Analysts say those reforms, which include new fees for doctors visits, cuts to some social benefits and a loosening of labor market rules that protect workers' jobs, have unnerved the SPD base, who see the party embarking on a course of social Darwinism.

But abandoning Schröder's reforms, which go under the name Agenda 2010, does not appear to be on the table.

SPD party head Franz Müntefering, heading a chorus of party leaders, said after consultations with other party leaders on Monday there will be no "U-turn" on the reforms.

"We have to get our country's affairs in order with reforms," said the SPD's deputy parliamentary group leader Ludwig Stiegler. Berlin's SPD Mayor Klaus Wowereit told reporters before the meeting there was no alternative to Agenda 2010.

They are largely echoing the words of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who has repeatedly said he will not fundamentally change the course he has set the country on. Over the weekend, he told SPD leaders he would rather resign than water down his reform program.

New PR offensive?

While many party leaders are lining up behind Schröder's stay-the-course stance, calls have been going out to the executive to put a new spin on the reforms, putting the focus on social justice instead of on the dismantling of the welfare state.

They appear to have been heard. Müntefering said on Monday there would be new "accentuations" that would make it clear to the public that the reforms are being put in place "for everyone."

"We have to stop this idea that the reform course means doom," Björn Böhning, head of the SPD's youth group, told German public television ZDF. He said the government's zig-zag course and implementation did not make it easier for the electorate to understand what the goals were.

"It must be clear to voters what these reforms are for," Michael Müller, head of the Berlin SPD, told ZDF on Monday. He said the party should make it clear, for example, that money saved by the reforms would be reinvested in education, a fact that would be received positively by voters.

Left-wing demands

But according to trade unions and other members of the party's left wing, the SPD has already forgotten its roots. They are repeating demands for a radical course change and a return to traditional Social Democratic positions.

According to Heiko Maas, SPD head in the state of Saarland, the only way the current SPD government has a chance to win elections again is to recover the "socially just label."

Germany's trade unions warned of a "vehement disagreements" about the party's future course, saying they and the government need to come to agreement about the reforms and present it to the public. Ursula Engelen-Kefer, deputy head of the German Trade Union Federation said that while the unions can live with some parts of the current reform plan, other aspects were unacceptable.

"We need a correction," she said.