After a streak of painful election defeats, former chancellor Gerhard Schröder urges the SPD to adopt a bold reform program inspired by his Agenda‑2010 politics.
“We neglected the economy and let ourselves get distracted by side issues” Schröder told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Wednesday edition) in Hanover. “The country now needs a fresh agenda, but that can only work if the SPD approaches it with real will and courage”.
Denial of reforms or piecemeal adjustments, he argues, is the wrong approach. “The Social Democratic Party used to be a driver of social progress and was braver. We must now urgently revisit the question of pension age, because the last major pension reform was twenty years ago. The SPD should not constantly feel guilty about reforms”.
Schröder also calls for abandoning the dual leadership structure. “The dual leadership is nonsense; I would abolish it again” he said. “That may work for the Greens, but an organization like the SPD needs clear leadership”. In that context he urged the party to strengthen Vice‑Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, calling him “undoubtedly a good man”. Bärbel Bas, the co‑chair, was not mentioned.
He added that he misses a more life‑oriented politics within the federal SPD. “The SPD is still strong wherever it has clarified that governing is reality for life and not just programmatic reality” Schröder observed. “With this life reality of the people who elected me and will elect me in the future, I must engage. That creates a very different understanding of politics than seeing politics only as formulatising and implementing one’s own programs”.
Schröder recalled his famous line from the election night in 1998, that the country was more important than the party. “That is the core message the SPD needs to internalise again today. Politics is not for ourselves but for the country”. He noted that Cem Özdemir had recently made a similar argument in Baden‑Württemberg, and that this understanding has unfortunately faded within the federal SPD.