Peer Steinbrueck (centre), the Social Democratic Party’s candidate for German Chancellor, poses with members of his shadow cabinet (from left) Florian Pronold, Manuela Schwesig, Thomas Oppermann, Cornelia Fuellkrug-Weitzel, Matthias Machnig, Brigitte Zypries and Klaus Wiesehuegel, after an SPD party convention in Berlin yesterday.
Reuters/Berlin
The main opposition challenger to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, lagging her badly in the run-up to the September 22 election, yesterday rebuked his party’s chairman in another sign of disarray in the Social Democrats’ (SPD) campaign.
Peer Steinbrueck told the weekly Der Spiegel that he expected all SPD members, including chairman Sigmar Gabriel, to back him, days after a party meeting in which Gabriel openly criticised Steinbrueck’s campaign, the magazine said.
At a party event later yesterday, the men sat next to each other and both denied any rift.
The SPD trail Merkel’s conservatives in opinion polls by about 15-16 points. In an Emnid poll published on Sunday, they slipped a point to 25%, their lowest since January, and only 2 points above their poor showing in the 2009 election.
“Only by concentrating all our strengths can the SPD oust this government and Mrs Merkel,” Steinbrueck told Der Spiegel.
“I therefore expect that everyone, including the party chairman, will over the next 100 days get behind the chancellor candidate and the campaign in a loyal, constructive manner.”
Gabriel said yesterday that there could sometimes be friction between him and Steinbrueck, much as in a marriage, but this ultimately only generated warmth.
Steinbrueck, a former finance minister, has enjoyed several gaffe-free months, but early campaign mistakes still dog him.
Six days ago, he sacked his chief spokesman, widely blamed for failing to prevent damaging remarks he made - that German chancellors were underpaid and Merkel was so popular because she was a woman - from appearing in a newspaper in December.
The SPD had high hopes of beating Merkel when it chose Steinbrueck last September and both Gabriel and former foreign minister Frank-Walker Steinmeier declined the candidacy. He was seen as an acerbic conservative voice in the left-leaning SPD who could woo less convinced voters away from Merkel.
But his message has been clouded by mistakes. He became mired in a row over earning 1.25mn euros ($1.7mn) as an after-dinner speaker, and bungled an ensuing public debate.
Despite her strong lead, Merkel may still struggle to form a government if her allies, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), fail to secure the 5% minimum for entry into parliament. She might then be forced to consider a coalition with the SPD like the one she led in 2005-09.
FDP lead candidate Rainer Bruederle broke several bones in an accident on Friday, and a party spokesman said on Saturday it was unclear how this would affect his duties.