Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany's SPD, has announced her resignation following poor results for her party at the European elections. The move could destabilize Angela Merkel's coalition.
Image: Imago Images/E. Contini
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Andrea Nahles has announced her resignation as leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and its parliamentary group, saying she wanted to give the party the chance to elect the next leader in an orderly way after disastrous European election results.
The choice of Nahles' successor could prove crucial for Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose conservative Christian Democrats CDU/CSU lead the German government in coalition with the Social Democrats. A more left-leaning leader of the SPD could take the party out of the alliance, potentially ending Merkel's chancellorship.
"The discussions within the parliamentary group and the large amount of feedback from the party have shown me that there is no longer support for me in holding these offices," Nahles wrote in a statement to SPD members on Sunday. She said she would step down as party leader on Monday and as parliamentary leader on Tuesday, and according to some media reports was also going to resign her seat in the Bundestag, though a date for that has not been set.
Initial signals from the CDU suggest the conservatives are determined to keep the coalition together. Merkel's successor as party leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said she had acknowledged Nahles' resignation with great respect.
"I expect the SPD will make the now necessary personnel decisions quickly, so as not to impair the ability of the grand coalition to act," she said in a statement to reporters at CDU headquarters in Berlin. "We remain committed to the grand coalition."
An hour later, the chancellor herself appeared at the same spot to underline the point. After praising Nahles' "fine character," Merkel said: "We will continue the government's work with all seriousness, and above all greatly conscious of our responsibility. The issues we must solve are plain — in Germany, in Europe and in the rest of the world."
But voices lower down the CDU hierarchy suggest that some in the party feel the time for a new start has arrived. Deputy parliamentary leader Carsten Linnemann told the Funke Media Group that the coalition was at a crossroads: either this "unloved constellation" makes important political progress, or it faces collapse. "The SPD and the CDU/CSU are still in a grand coalition dilemma," he said. "We won't be able to govern and at the same time remain distinguishable for voters on core issues."
Working with Merkel
Olaf Scholz, the vice chancellor and now the most senior SPD politician in Germany, has already ruled out another coalition with the CDU, at least after the next election. "Three grand coalitions in a row would not do democracy in Germany any good," Scholz told the Tagesspiegel newspaper on Saturday, before Nahles' announcement. "No one wants a continuation of the current coalition after 2021 — not the citizens, not the CDU and certainly not us Social Democrats."
A party conference will be required to elect a new leader, which will take some weeks to organize.
Who could take over as head of Germany's Social Democrats?
Andrea Nahles has resigned as leader of the Social Democrats after the party's poor performance in the European elections. Whoever takes the reins inherits a party in disarray. DW looks at the potential candidates.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Stephan Weil, premier of Lower Saxony
The 60-year-old leads a coalition of the SPD and the Christian Democrats in his northern state. In the Bundesrat — the council of Germany's 16 states and upper house of parliament — he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and is deputy chairman of the Committee on European Affairs. Many in the SPD have long seen him as a possible new hope to lead the party forward.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Jaspersen
Manuela Schwesig, premier of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Schwesig, born and raised in the former East Germany, is the first woman to lead the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The 45-year-old previously served as minister of family affairs under Chancellor Angela Merkel, a role she used to push for equal opportunities for women and better state childcare facilities. She serves on the Bundesrat's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
Olaf Scholz, finance minister and vice chancellor
Scholz, 60, is seen by some of his fellow party members as a technocrat and is considered to belong to the SPD's conservative wing. As finance minister under Merkel, he has been committed to curbing public spending and keeping a lid on new debt. He also served as federal minister of labor and social affairs in Merkel's Cabinet from 2007 to 2009.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
Malu Dreyer, premier of Rhineland-Palatinate
A reasonably popular figure in the SPD, Dreyer was voted in as deputy party chairwoman in 2017 with 97.5% backing. Despite repeatedly stating she would not want to leave her western state for Berlin, she is still seen as a possible replacement for Nahles. The 58-year-old has served as premier of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2013 and is the first woman to hold the office.
Image: Imago/J. Jeske
Rolf Mützenich
The 59-year-old Bundestag member from Cologne is one of the deputy chairs of the SPD's parliamentary group. In that role, he is responsible for foreign affairs, defense and human rights policy. He is well respected within the party and could be tapped as interim SPD leader in the Bundestag.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Kappeler
Achim Post, SPD leader in North Rhine-Westphalia
The 60-year-old sociologist leads the SPD in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a deputy chair of the SPD's parliamentary group, overseeing budgetary affairs, finance and Europe. As secretary-general of the Party of European Socialists, he is also considered well connected at the European level.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. v.Jutrczenka
Martin Schulz, ex-SPD leader
The former president of the European Parliament has been suggested as another possible challenger. The 63-year-old ran as the SPD's candidate for chancellor in 2017 but lost to Merkel. He subsequently stepped down as SPD leader. He has already said he doesn't want the job back, but Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported last week that he was keen to lead the SPD parliamentary group.
Image: REUTERS
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Other leading SPD politicians have warned against making any hasty decisions. In a statement posted on Facebook on Sunday, deputy SPD leader Ralf Stegner called for the party to end internal bickering as it chooses a new leader. "The style of interaction within the SPD in the last days and weeks has not at all been marked by the social-democratic value of solidarity," he wrote. "If we want to win new trust and overcome this grave crisis, this must fundamentally change."
Nahles' resignation follows her party's dire result at the European Parliament elections in May, which saw the SPD come in third behind the CDU and the environmentalist Greens, with only 15.8% of the German vote, an 11-point drop from the last EU election in 2014.
There was plenty of evidence on Sunday of the ugly mood within the party. SPD youth organization leader Kevin Kühnert, an early opponent of the grand coalition and often a left-wing thorn in the leadership's side, tweeted, "Everything begins with a simple observation: Anyone who wants to brave a new beginning with the promise of fairness and solidarity must never, never, never treat others the way we have done in the last few weeks. I am ashamed of it."
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.
Image: Reuters
CDU/CSU - FDP - DP (1949-1957)
The first democratic government to rule 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). When Adenauer's conservatives won re-election four years later, he once again turned to the same coalition partners.
Image: picture-alliance/Vack
CDU/CSU - FDP (1961-1966)
After four years of ruling West Germany on their own between 1957 and 1961, the conservative Union 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 Minister of Economic Affairs Ludwig Erhard (left) was elected by parliament to take over
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
CDU/CSU - SPD (1966-1969)
The first ever "grand coalition" was not the product of an election. Ludwig Erhart was re-elected in 1965 and continued to rule alongside the FDP. However, the following year the Free Democrats left the government over budget disputes. Erhart also resigned and Kurt Kiesinger (right) was chosen to take over. With the FDP out, he governed with the Social Democrats, led by Willy Brandt (left).
Image: dpa
SPD - FDP (1969-1982)
Willy Brandt became Germany's first Social Democratic chancellor in the post-war period. Despite winning fewer votes than the CDU/CSU, Brandt struck a deal with the FDP to give them a narrow majority in the Bundestag. It wouldn't be the last time the liberals would be called out for a perceived lack of loyalty. In 1974, Brandt was replaced by Helmut Schimdt, who went on to win two more elections.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
CDU/CSU - FDP (1982-1998)
The 13-year friendship between the SPD and FDP ended in 1980 as the two parties' differing ideologies became irreconcilable. The liberals again switched sides that year, dropping out of the coalition and seeking a deal with the conservatives. That caused the SPD-led government to collapse and a reborn CDU/CSU-FDP coalition formed under the leadership of Helmut Kohl (pictured).
Image: AP
CDU - DSU - Democratic Awakening (1990)
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany held its first ever elections. The Christian Democrats under Lothar de Maiziere took over 40 percent 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: picture-alliance/dpa/Wolfgang Kumm
SPD - Green Party (1998-2005)
In 2002, Helmut Kohl's 16-year rule came to an end and the Social Democrats under Gerhard Schröder returned to power. The SPD formed a coalition with the Green party, who became a governing party less than 20 years after being founded. Unlike under Brandt, the SPD now led a left-wing government, rather than a center-left coalition. The SPD-Green party coalition remained in power until 2005.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/W. Baum
CDU/CSU - SPD (2005-2009)
"Grand coalitions" do not come easily. When the first exit polls came in, both Schröder (right) and Angela Merkel (left) declared themselves the winner. In the end, Merkel's conservatives defeated the SPD by just 1 percent. Germany's two largest parties agreed to form the country's second-ever grand coalition.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Bensch
CDU/CSU - FDP (2009-2013)
The "grand coalition" experiment ended in 2009, after the SPD picked up a disappointing 23 percent in the federal elections. The Free Democrats, by contrast, gained almost 5 percent to give them over 14 percent of the vote. Merkel 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: Getty Images/A. Rentz
CDU/CSU - SPD (2013-?)
After taking more than 40 percent of the vote, Merkel's conservatives probably weren't expecting to rule with the SPD. But with her old allies the FDP failing to meet the 5 percent threshold to enter the Bundestag, 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.
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SPD's first female leader
Nahles became leader of the SPD in April 2018, having led the party's parliamentary group since September 2017. She is the first woman to head the party, which has roots going back to 1863, making it the oldest existing party in the German parliament.
But following a historically poor result in the 2017 general election, when the party gained only 20.5% of the national vote, there was intense pressure from the party's grassroots membership and left-wing not to join forces with Merkel again.
The widespread perception among political analysts and party members is that governing under Merkel's shadow has only damaged the party, leaving it unable to find a clear political profile. Nevertheless, the SPD was crucial in shaping some of Merkel's government policies, including introducing a national minimum wage.
It was only after the collapse of Merkel's talks with the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens in late 2017 that the SPD leadership opted to help the chancellor form a new government after all, with Nahles one of the chief proponents of the move.
