While party head Martin Schulz's star appears to have faded, another of the party's top leaders delivered a speech that may have cinched the "yes" vote and possibly saved the SPD establishment — for now, at least.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/O. Berg
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Given the deep divisions among the SPD delegates over the prospect of joining another grand coalition, Martin Schulz's speech was less an appeal for action than a desperate cry for party unity. And it was received as such: tepid applause followed the party head's address. Then a radically anti-coalition speech was delivered by the head of the party's youth wing, Kevin Kühnert.
But then Andrea Nahles stepped up to the lectern. 20 years ago, she led the SPD youth wing, the "Jusos," herself. But that didn't mean she went lightly on them today. Nahles, who heads the SPD parliamentary group, lambasted those who opposed coalition talks for seven whole minutes.
In allusion to the Jusos' leader Kühnert, Nahles posed the rhetorical question what defines a big political achievement. She told of an encounter with an elderly lady at an airport, who had asked Nahles about the SPD position on pensions and then told her "I'm counting on you."
Nahles and her delegation negotiated with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) and managed to agree on higher pensions for people who spent many years working. Nahles' voice trembled as she recalled this, saying that basic pensions are a big political achievement. She explained that she'd joined the party because "I have always seen the significance in the little things."
In the last Merkel cabinet, Nahles served as the Minister for Labor and Social Affairs. During this time, she oversaw the implementation of one of the Social Democrats' biggest projects: the minimum wage. She worked "like crazy" to introduce the minimum wage, Nahles proudly shouted to the Bonn delegates. She said she would pursue similarity important issues in a prospective new government. Like a fairer health care system and refugee regime, and she would fight against fixed-term contracts. "We won't make progress on all issues with the conservatives," she admitted. But that's no wonder, she said, as the SPD is an independent party with a distinct agenda.
She then continued to dissect the skeptics' arguments with visible passion, inadvertently shaking the microphones attached to her lectern. "We're not betraying the SPD by agreeing to govern with the others."
A history of Germany's coalition governments
Only once has federal Germany been ruled by a single party with a parliamentary majority. Coalitions are, therefore, the norm. DW looks at the various governing combinations that have presided in the Bundestag.
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CDU-SPD (2025-?)
Yet another coalition of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the center-left Social Democrat Party (SPD) has taken office on May 6, 2025. Both the CDU and the SPD have dwindled in recent years, so there is now no talk of "grand coalition" as they embark on a mission to save Germany's economy from decline and society from further polarization.
Image: Florian Gaertner/IMAGO
SPD-Green Party-FDP (2021-2024)
From 2021 until late 2024, Germany was governed by a center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), ecologist Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), whose color is yellow. The government known as "Ampel" (traffic light) in Germany, started out as a self-declared "Fortschrittskoalition" (progress coalition) but got mired in infighting and became the least popular government ever.
Image: Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-SPD (2013-2021)
After taking more than 40% of the vote, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives probably weren't expecting to rule with the SPD. However, her old allies, the FDP failed to meet the 5% threshold to enter the Bundestag, and options were limited. Merkel called on the SPD to join her and "take on the responsibility to build a stable government." She made the same speech again four years later.
Image: Maurizio Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP (2009-2013)
The SPD, part of the outgoing coalition, picked up a disappointing 23% in the 2009 federal election. The Free Democrats, by contrast, won more than 14% of the vote. Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) and the FDP's Guido Westerwelle (left) formed a coalition with relative ease. It was, after all, Germany's 11th CDU/CSU-FDP government.
Image: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-SPD (2005-2009)
"Grand coalitions" do not come easily. When the first exit polls came in, both Gerhard Schröder (left) and Angela Merkel (right) declared themselves the winner. In the end, Merkel's conservatives defeated the SPD by just 1%. Germany's two largest parties agreed to form the country's second-ever grand coalition, and Schröder left politics.
Image: Stefan Sauer/dpa/picture alliance
SPD-Green Party (1998-2005 )
In 1998, the CDU/CSU lost a general election and SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder (left) became chancellor, heading a center-left government with the Green Party. Joschka Fischer of the Greens took over the Foreign Ministry.
Image: Andreas Altwein/dpa/picture-alliance
CDU-DSU-Democratic Awakening (1990)
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany held its first free election. The Christian Democrats under Lothar de Maiziere took over 40% of the vote. They went into coalition with two small parties: German Social Union and Democratic Awakening, whose members included one Angela Merkel. In October that year, the government signed the reunification treaty with West Germany.
Image: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa/picture alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP (1982-1998)
The friendship between the SPD and FDP ended as the two parties' differing ideologies became irreconcilable in the early 1980s. The liberals again switched sides, seeking a deal with the conservatives. They formed a new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition under the leadership of Helmut Kohl (pictured), who remained chancellor for 16 years until well after German reunification.
SPD-FDP (1969-1982)
Willy Brandt (left) became Germany's first Social Democratic chancellor in the postwar period. The CDU/CSU was the strongest party, but Brandt struck a deal with the FDP to secure a narrow majority in the Bundestag. This wouldn't be the last time the FDP would be called out for a lack of loyalty. In 1974, Brandt was replaced by Helmut Schmidt (right), who went on to win two more elections.
Image: Sammy Minkoff/picture alliance
CDU/CSU - SPD (1966-1969)
The first-ever "grand coalition" was not the product of an election. Ludwig Erhard was re-elected in 1965 and continued to rule alongside the FDP who left the government in the following year over budget disputes. Erhard also resigned and Kurt Kiesinger (center) was chosen to take over. With the FDP out, he governed with the center-left Social Democrats, led by Willy Brandt.
Image: UPI/dpa/picture-alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP (1961-1966)
After four years of ruling West Germany on their own between 1957 and 1961, the conservatives lost their majority in the Bundestag and were forced to enter into coalition with the Free Democrats again. Adenauer resigned in 1963 for his part in the so-called "Spiegel" scandal. His economic affairs minister, Ludwig Erhard (left), was elected by parliament to take over.
Image: Alfred Hennig/dpa/picture-alliance
CDU/CSU-FDP-DP (1949-1961)
The first democratic government to govern West Germany since the end of World War II saw Christian Democratic Union leader Konrad Adenauer form a governing coalition with the Free Democrats and the German Party (a now-defunct national conservative party). It had a very slim majority. Small coalition partners fell by the wayside, eventually leaving the CDU/CSU to govern alone.
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Nahles picks apart critics' arguments
Among other things, many in the youth wing are concerned the SPD will "disintegrate" after yet another grand coalition with the CDU and CSU. Kühnert's camp believes the party will find it easier to embark on a course of renewal in opposition. Nahles has heard this argument before. The SPD did lose voters after twice joining Merkel to form a coalition government. But, Nahles said, in the intermittent four years in opposition the SPD barely regained its strength, climbing "from 23 to just 25 percent." That period in opposition, she insisted, hardly constituted a phase "of major renewal".
She also contextualized the decline of the SPD within the wider European political landscape, arguing that other parties had lost supports regardless of Merkel and the grand coalition.
Her most powerful argument concerned fresh elections, which she identified as the only realistic alternative to forming a new grand coalition. "I don't fear fresh elections but I do fear citizens' questions." She said people would ask why her party hadn't gone ahead and pursued the policies advocated in its party program as part of a coalition government. If her party's explanation was that it was unable to implement all its policies, people would "call us insane." The former Juso leader and ex-idealist struck a decidedly pragmatic tone, pointing out that fresh elections weren't an alternative because the party would not win an absolute majority. And that a left-wing coalition uniting the SPD, the Left party and the Greens wasn't either, as surveys showed they together still lacked 10 percent of voter support to govern. So to her, going for fresh elections was simply "nonsense!"
She concluded her speech by promising to be a tough negotiator in talks with the conservatives. Which resonated with the Bonn delegates who responded ecstatically. A reaction that neither SPD party leader Martin Schulz, nor any other party member manged to evoke. After the conference, delegates and political observers agreed that Nahles' speech struck the right tone at the right time, essentially saving the entire party leadership, and Schulz in particular.
Nahles: CDU must put aside last round of failed talks
