Christian Lindner

SDP chairman Christian Lindner, who is also finance minister and vice chancellor in the government, is happy to keep his post

The liberals from Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) decided after an internal party poll to remain in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing tripartite coalition. The result is important because it gave an insight into attitudes in the SDP, which after a series of heavy election defeats last year emerged as the weak link in the governing majority.

On the first day of the new year, the results of an intra-party poll of a non-binding nature were announced, according to which, for now, those votes who insist on remaining in Scholz’s fragmented coalition have a slight advantage in the SDP, notes Reuters.

The poll comes after growing discontent among the pro-business, tax-cutting party’s assets over the policy of increasing social spending led by the chancellor’s German Social Democratic Party (GSDP) and the other coalition partner the Greens. This immediately gave rise to speculation that the government may not complete its full term, which still has almost two years left.

Bijan Jair-Sarai, the secretary general of the SDP, said on Monday that the 52 percent of poll participants in favor of remaining in the coalition was a clear signal that the party wanted to continue governing.

“The majority of members want the SDP to continue to behave as a responsible party and stay in power,” he told reporters. “The political challenges are enormous, in economic, budgetary policy, but also in terms of migration. We want the SDP to continue helping to solve these problems.”

Only 26,000 out of a total of 70,000 party members took part in the poll, initiated by the heads of the party’s local and regional structures, and the occasion was the SPD’s exclusion from the regional parliaments of Bavaria and Hesse after the party failed to overcome the 5 percent threshold to enter them at the elections.

The war in Ukraine, the loss of Russian gas supplies and the need for an accelerated energy transition are taking an unprecedented toll on Europe’s strongest industrial economy, Germany. Economic growth is almost zero and even negative, and in such an environment it becomes increasingly difficult for the SDP to convince the public that the orthodox budget solutions it offers are the right ones.

None of the parties in the coalition is interested in early elections, as the opposition conservatives insist. In these tough economic times, opinion polls show 30 percent support for the Conservatives, about twice the ratings of the Social Democrats and the Greens. On a national level, the support for the SDP moves at a level of around 5 percent.

In his New Year’s address on December 31, Scholz acknowledged that times were difficult but promised that Germany had the strength to overcome the challenges.

“Many are dissatisfied and I take this fact seriously. But we in Germany will successfully overcome the obstacles,” he said. “Inflation is falling, wages are rising, gas storages are full to the brim for the winter.” We are doing well despite the adverse economic conditions.”

REACTIONS TO THE SURVEY RESULTS

Among the reactions of the representatives of the top leadership of the SDP, satisfaction with the result of the poll prevailed, as they defined it as a manifestation of a responsible attitude towards the fate of the state in difficult times, but also as a chance to advance the political views of the party.

SDP chairman Christian Lindner, who is also finance minister and vice chancellor in the government, wrote on the social network Ex that the results were “a clear request to preserve the liberal profile of the government”, and his deputy Wolfgang Kubicki, who is one of the most popular personalities in the party, saw in them an opportunity to strengthen the positions of the SDP in the ruling coalition, often called by journalists and political scientists in Germany “traffic light” because of the colors of the parties participating in it – red, yellow and green.

“The majority among the active party of the SDP wants the party to take responsibility,” German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, who is also a representative of the SDP, wrote in Aix.

At the other extreme was the comment of one of the initiators of the asset poll, Matthias Nölke, who continued to insist on a new course for the liberals. “This result is a clear signal of the discontent within the party,” the chairman of the party organization in the Kassel district told dpa and called on the party leadership to take these sentiments into account when deciding on their further actions in the ruling coalition.

According to the opposition Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), the small lead won by the supporters of the liberals to remain in government shows that the coalition is in a deep crisis, which is why, according to it, early elections are needed. “The SFDP is internally completely divided, which makes it permanently politically incapacitated,” CSU General Secretary Martin Huber told the Augsburger Allgemeine, accusing the liberals in government of clinging to power.

The entry of the SDP into the coalition with the GSDP and the Greens was accepted with reservations from the beginning by many in the SDP, Zeit notes. The publication adds that the result of the internal poll will have a good effect on the ruling party, because it will resolve the disputes in the party for the time being, will calm the other two partners in the government majority and will quell the tension within the traffic light coalition itself, which has been constantly torn by contradictions lately. on government policy.

Chancellor Scholz has also been critical of coalition relations in recent months. “There’s nothing wrong with having discussions about the way forward and struggling to reach fair compromises, that’s part of democracy – but I’d be happy to forgo some of the noisy debates we’ve seen in recent weeks and months.” , he said in a New Year’s address, calling for more dialogue.

THE BUDGET AND MIGRATION, THE BIG CHALLENGES

The coalition partners will have to show a willingness to compromise on the 2024 budget and, in particular, on spending cuts and changes in the proposed draft budget for the new year. The adoption of the state plan bill is already too late due to the disagreements between the three parties, therefore, faced with the lack of time, they set themselves the task of getting it through the Bundestag by the beginning of February.

The other big challenge facing the triple coalition is migration. Data from the latest public opinion polls show that more than two-thirds of Germans do not believe in the government’s ability to offer an adequate solution to this issue. According to a survey conducted by the agency “Yugav” on behalf of the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” among 2,000 respondents, 69% of those asked answered that they “don’t believe at all” or “rather don’t believe.” Only 23 percent “rather” or “completely” retain confidence in the cabinet’s actions on this matter, and about 9 percent are hesitant.

Source: BTA

2024-01-03 19:01:50
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