This week marks the 160th anniversary of the founding of the German social democratic SPD this is his oldest batch Germany and one of the most influential forms of political organization in the modern world. However, the celebrations held these days in the Willy Brand building at Berlinwhere its headquarters is located, as in other cities, is surrounded by an atmosphere of general skepticism for two main reasons: the failure of the party in the polls and acute internal tensions in the coalition government formed by the Social Democrats with Greenery And liberals after the elections in September 2021

As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Social Democratic Chancellor, wrote Olaf Soltz and Liberal Treasury Minister Christian Lindner are planning sweeping spending cuts across all ministries except Defense to close a $20 billion hole in the 2024 state budget proposal. The draft was due to be discussed in the cabinet in March, but hitherto insurmountable differences between the three state partners have led to constant delays.

According to a German newspaper report, Scholz and Lindner appear to have reached a compromise, with the minister softening his demands for a drastic reduction in social programs if the costly clean fuel subsidy program promoted by the Greens is cancelled. In fact, Lindner is pushing for a return to the automatic “debt brake” that was put into the German constitution but was suspended during the pandemic.

However, the transition to austerity, and especially the prospect of canceling environmental programs, is causing a strong reaction from the greens. The Greens’ co-chairman and German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck said his party is unwilling to sacrifice what the three partners agreed on when forming the government, which is no less important than the “debt brake”. However, the Greens’ insistence on implementing proposals to phase out fossil fuels and introduce a special tax on the green transition threatens to cost the ruling coalition dearly in the elections, as it leads in the polls in terms of voters. to the center right.

The SPD is celebrating its 160th anniversary with skepticism as opinion polls show it is vying for second place.

The social and environmental policy frontiers for Germany are narrowing as the country has to repay much larger amounts to service its debt in 2024 than in previous years: of the €4 billion it paid in 2021, it is expected to spend €40 billion. Next year. “Unlimited debt growth is not a good answer to the investment needs of the economy,” Olaf Solz coldly told trade unionists during his speech yesterday at the conference of the European Trade Union Confederation in Berlin.

A climate of internal divisions does not bode well for the ruling coalition at a time when opinion polls are hoisting the sails of the CDU/CSU Christian Democratic opposition. According to the latest opinion polls, the centre-right alliance is firmly in first place with a percentage of 30% or more, while the SPD is battling for second place with the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). ranging from 17% to 19%. It’s starting to feel like the only reason Olaf Soltz won the 2021 election was because he was lucky enough to find against himself a centre-right candidate as weak and fallible as Armin Lasset. Today, Scholz’s approval ratings are lower than any of his predecessors since the polls began.

Even the meager successes of SPD this season are bittersweet. The recent re-election of social democrat Andreas Bobensulte as mayor of Bremen came as some relief to the party leadership, which feared the worst, but it won just 29.8%, the second worst for the SPD in 70 years. Elsewhere things are much worse: Berlin has fallen to the CDU after 22 years of SPD rule, while in East German states like Saxony-Anhalt the Social Democrats are limited to single-digit polls.

SPD stations

1863 The General Association of German Workers, the forerunner of the party, was founded in Leipzig.

1869 The Social Democratic Labor Party is formed.

1918-1919 November Revolution, in which he played a central role.

1933 The SPD was the only party present in the Reichstag to vote against Hitler’s law.

1933 Ban a party.

[1945год Восстановление СПД.

1959. Он отказывается от своей приверженности марксизму и становится более широкой группой левоцентристов.

1966-1969 гг. Он присоединяется к правительству в качестве младшего партнера, что повторялось в периоды 2005–2009 и 2013–2021 годов.

1969-1982 гг. Впервые она является крупнейшей партией, что снова произошло в период с 1998 по 2005 год, а также с 2021 года по настоящее время.