Germany has inched closer towards forming a new government after the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) gave its lukewarm endorsement of a renewed Angela Merkel-led “grand coalition”.
At the special SPD congress in Bonn that welcomed leader Martin Schulz’s main speech with sarcastic applause and saw standing ovations for his fiercest critics, the party’s delegates nonetheless gave a cautious green light to the second and final stage of coalition talks with Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats.
“The SPD must and will be visible, audible and recognisable!” said Schulz at the end of a week of rallying support at party offices across the country.
The former president of the European parliament defended the results of the initial phase of exploratory talks, insisting that the resulting coalition paper represented “a revolution” in German education policy, as well as “a manifesto for a European Germany”.
“If we want to shape things in and for Europe, then we cannot wait a few more years,” Schulz said. “Important decisions have to be made now – not in three, four, five years.”
But the reaction of the 600 delegates to his speech remained reserved throughout.
When Schulz said he had fielded a call from the French president, Emanuel Macron, on Saturday, there were audibly sarcastic groans from members who would prefer their party to emulate the more overtly left-leaning policies of the British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
In the wake of September elections at which the SPD were punished with the worst national election result since Germany became a federal republic in 1949, many supporters believe the party needs to reinvent itself in opposition.
The lukewarm endorsement of Schulz’s speech contrasted with enthusiastic applause for the 28-year-old leader of the Young Socialists, the SPD’s youth branch.
Kevin Kuehnert, who has become the most prominent face of the internal campaign against a renewal of the alliance that has governed Germany for the past four years, said that he felt his party was trapped in an “endless loop” of coalition-forming under Merkel: “We don’t want to, but we have to.”
Around Bonn’s World Conference Centre, many SPD supporters sported red gnomes’ hats – a reference to conservative politicians who have dismissed the campaign of Keuhnert’s coalition-sceptics as “the uprising of the dwarves”.
“Let’s be dwarves today,” the Young Socialist leader said in his speech, “so that one day we can again be giants.”