In a move to revitalize the Social Democratic Party of Germany’s (SPD) stance on foreign policy, SPD foreign affairs expert Ralf Stegner has called for a debate on the party’s course in peace politics.
Stegner attributed the historically poor election results of the SPD to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Basic Security (BSW) party, which, in his view, have successfully won votes by focusing on issues of migration and foreign policy, which the SPD had allegedly left unaddressed. “We must discuss how we can set the course for peace and disarmament if we don’t want to slide to 10 percent in the polls” Stegner said in an interview with the Funke-Mediengruppe.
Stegner criticized the AfD and BSW for spreading a false narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not responsible for the war in Ukraine, saying that this has led to people feeling that all other parties are only talking about weapons, not solutions. He acknowledged that there is already some discussion within the SPD on these issues, but argued that the party’s position has been too closely tied to that of the Union and the Greens, who, in his view, are only focused on the military aspect of foreign policy.
Stegner is one of the signatories of the “Manifest” of SPD politicians, which calls for a fundamental new course in security and defense policy, even in relation to Russia. “We must lead the discussion that we started, if we’re going to talk about the reasons for the catastrophic election result in the SPD” he said, adding that this will indeed happen at the SPD party convention.
Stegner emphasized that the “Manifest” is not an attack on the party leadership, saying, “This discussion is necessary and not an attack on Lars Klingbeil and the party leadership. I’m old enough not to engage in such debates with tactical considerations in mind. If we in the SPD don’t discuss foreign policy anymore, who will then?