by Henning Lindhoff
Good mascots have little to do with rhetoric. Why should they? Nobody wants to hear good mascots talk. We want them to dance. You're supposed to make a good look like a bad game. Martin Schulz makes a good face a bad game. In the Bundestag election campaign of 2017, he took a good look at Europe and left the field to his supposed competitor. If the base still applauded well in 2017, it will find its way back to the old rhetoric of indignation in 2018.
Susanne Neumann, a much sought-after trade unionist recently, is disappointed. A few days ago, she said in the daily newspaper Tagesschau,"I want to have an SPD that embodies social justice again. She's not the only one to conclude:"In Groko, the SPD is lost."
The outrage is understandable. But its boring.
The SPD is not only lacking in any attitude. It simply has none left. What Martin Schulz is still allowed to administer today is the meagre, spineless remainder of a party that once wanted to represent a proud workforce. Martin Schulz is the mascot of the fall of German social democracy. And we can feel sorry for him in this role.
What a difference to Gerhard Schröder in 2005: More than 12 years have passed since the former chancellor gave the go-ahead for the SPD's relegation. With his legendary drumbeat against media, CDU and Merkel in the 2005 elephant round, he slipped into the role of the aggressive party leader for the last time. The effectiveness of this performance may be disputed. But it didn't get any better after that. His successors became pale and paler.
But lack of character is not the fundamental problem of this party. The real cause of their relegation is an unprecedented double fraud on their own constituency.
With the Hartz reforms, Gerhard Schröder defied the hard core of trade unionists and workers, who a few years earlier had thrown themselves with verve into all the election campaigns for all the Dreßlers, Penners, Erlers, Brandts and Wehners.
It was a violent blow to the office, carried out by a small circle of advisers and beneficiaries around the then chancellor, who was supposed to undermine the credibility of the SPD forever.
The blow could have been used: The union muff has been stripped off. The new touch appealed to new constituencies. A third way, propagated by Tony Blair in Great Britain, was opened up.
Quite a few left-wing liberals now saw the SPD as a promising alternative to an FDP that was becoming more and more inferior to the CDU. The decline of Germany as a business location seemed to be inevitable. Thanks to this prospect, the SPD also created new hope for 2005.
But it turned out differently. With Schröder's drumbeat, the long period of infirmity began. Instead of wrestling with a government responsible FDP for sustainable, market economy oriented concepts, a somewhat credible body of officials propagated the expansion of the welfare state.
But this door had been closed for a long time. The ever-diminishing workforce kept pride and mistrust. She stayed away. New socially deprived strata also avoided will-less populism. They sought and found real protest.
The left-wing liberals curled by Schröder also quickly turned away and found their way back to the original economic policy.
What remained was the remainder of a former People's Party that for years was desperately clinging to its own history.
In 2018, the SPD will finally wind up. Her mascot from Würselen was very clear from the experienced side the necessary steps betrayed. Macron and Tsipras urgently advised the Grand Coalition. In both France and Greece, the Social Democrats have already been able to end their decline without success. Like Martin Schulz, German social democracy will follow the advice of his European comrades. But what can you expect from a good mascot? Let it dance.