Lutz Lichtenberger Takes Stock of Their Prospects to Define the Nation’S Politics for the Years Ahead

4 The German Times October 2018 POLITICS THE WHIPPERSNAPPER THE CROWN PRINCE t should have been a crushing defeat, for the at dozens of regional conferences. His style was e is already well along the path that both considered too generous – these were the intra-party cause and for him personally. Kevin Kühnert calm and matter-of-fact, without the revolutionary friend and foe agree may one day land him points of criticism against Merkel that prevailed Iwanted to prevent the center-left Social Demo- pathos for which many of the former chairs of the Hin the German chancellery. Angela Merkel before her admission of war refugees three years crats (SPD), the party whose youth organization he Jusos were known. “We’ve found almost 1,000 uses appointed the 38-year-old Jens Spahn to her cabi- ago. In interviews, Spahn has continued to cling to leads, from voting to reboot their current coalition of the words ‘want’ and ‘would like’ in the coalition net this year, if only to the often rather thankless catchy and, some feel, provocative assertions: the with Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Demo- agreement,” was one of the most repeated quotes post of health minister. The Christian Democrat current level of social assistance is enough to live off, crats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian from Kühnert’s roadshow. This was “the utmost has been a member of the Bundestag since 2002, he says; he called demonstrators at the G20 summit Social Union (CSU). vague formulation” of a political project. The SPD when he became the youngest directly elected rep- in Hamburg “left-wing fascists”; and he considers In September 2017, the SPD had suffered its worst can no longer trust the CDU, Kühnert preached to resentative in the history of the Federal Republic. it vital to impose a strict ban on Muslim women showing in a Bundestag election since the found- his comrades. Spahn has been an inconspicuous politician over wearing a full-face veil. ing of the Federal Republic in 1949: 20.5 percent. Ultimately, at the end of March, two-thirds of the years, a proficient healthcare policymaker and Spahn had probably taken into account the After Merkel’s negotiations with the Greens and party members voted for continuing the coalition pension expert who sat on all the relevant techni- appalled reactions of the left, which played right into the free-market Free Democrats (FDP) faltered, the with Merkel; only one-third voted Nay with Küh- cal panels, commissions and party committees. But his hand, giving him more publicity and making him SPD was left alone as the only potential partner for nert. And yet the Juso chief emerged from the debate all that changed in 2015 – with the refugee crisis even more beloved by the party’s right flank. This the Union. The sole conceivable alternative would in an even stronger position than before. Kühnert and Merkel’s response to it. When German poli- allowed the budding star of the Christian Democrats, have been new elections, which all center parties had, as they say in politics, enhanced his profile. tics descended into confusion, Spahn set out on a raised in Ahaus but a stone’s throw from the Dutch were against – not least out of concern that the far- He has become a national celebrity and is now the course opposite that of the chancellor. “If within a border, to avoid being seen as a throwback to the right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would most friendly face of the future. This is more than a ques- year far more than a million refugees and emigrants gnarled, conservative CDU politicians of the 1960s. likely prove the beneficiary. The SPD thus entered tion of content, it’s about self-confidence in a party enter Germany, this will radically call into question Just as Kühnert in the SPD, Spahn is readily sought into negotiations. Yet before a coalition could at odds with itself, from which voters are fleeing, many of the things we currently hold to be certain,” as a speaker by local CDU groups all across Ger- officially be formed, there would have to be a vote although the party believes it has crafted consistently he wrote. “We are experiencing a disruption of our many. He never forgets to mention that he is gay. among party members. 463,722 eligible voters were successful policy as part of the Grand Coalition since state.” Gay and conservative – sometimes still considered a summoned by the party in spring of this year for a 2013. In recent polls it garnered barely 18 percent. Although that was aimed at Merkel, it fell short of contradiction, even in 2018. The admission indeed binding vote: Yea or Nay. Kühnert’s moment had Incidentally, Gerhard Schröder – later German an open declaration of war; Spahn senses that, even helps Spahn levy his criticisms of political Islam and arrived. The 29-year-old mobilized the Jusos (short chancellor – and Andrea Nahles – the current head if the chancellor were to resign tomorrow morning, his warnings against the immigration of too many for Jungsozialisten, or Young Socialists, the youth of the SPD – both began their paths to party chief it’s still too early for him to take over. But, in terms Muslims by equating them with often openly aggres- division of the SPD since 1904) in opposition. Küh- as Juso chair. of his critics, Spahn has positioned himself to the sive homophobic attitudes. Spahn’s bold confession nert appeared on all the talk shows, gave newspaper right of Merkel, and has thus become the new hope shields him in bourgeois circles from being registered interviews, traveled across all of Germany and spoke of conservatives within the CDU, who won’t (or as too far to the political right. can’t) topple the chancellor, but are ever less shy In 2021, Merkel will have been in office for 16 about openly longing for the end of her era. The years, equaling Helmut Kohl’s run in the 1980s abolition of mandatory military service, the phase- and 1990s. It remains highly probable that she will out from nuclear power and the euro-bailout scheme decline to run for a fifth term. Spahn will then be 41 years old, older than Emmanuel Macron when he was elected president of France. DPA/ PAUL ZINKEN DPA/BERND VON JUTRCZENKA DPA/GREGOR FISCHER DPA/MONIKA SKOLIMOWSKA Robert Habeck, Sahra Wagenknecht, Kevin Kühnert and Jens Spahn (left to right) NEW KIDS ON THE BLOC Four upstarts are upending German politics. The German Times’ editor Lutz Lichtenberger takes stock of their prospects to define the nation’s politics for the years ahead THE FIREBRAND THE GREEN HOPE he time horizon of Sahra Wagenknecht’s within the party as aloof and all too concerned with hile Sahra Wagenknecht may be the most center back towards liberal democracy, progressive political career is wide open. Wagenknecht, her own interests. But no one could keep pace with her familiar face of the new Left, her con- and ecological policy. “We want to make the Greens’ Tco-chairman of the Left Party’s parliamentary in terms of how she was perceived by outsiders; before Wtemporary, Robert Habeck, the newly positions capable of winning a majority. This is a group, began a project this summer whose goals long, she became the face of her party. elected co-chairman of the Greens, is getting ever rebuke of the scaremongers and an invitation to and potential effect on the landscape of German In 2010 Wagenknecht finally managed to climb into more popular. He is targeting the political center. the dispirited to gather courage. We can change political parties has Berlin’s political class scratch- the party leadership and reached the pinnacle of the Above all, it is Habeck’s style, often considered politics.” ing its collective head. The 49-year-old hopes her caucus in 2015. That period also featured a liaison and nonchalant, that is now shaking up his party from In recent years, the Greens have been stuck right movement, #Aufstehen, or #Rise Up, will foment a then marriage with former SPD chief and Minister of within while delivering the Greens some excellent in the center of the party spectrum; they were coalition movement that – for now – claims to stand Finance Oskar Lafontaine, 26 years her senior and for poll results. At 15 percent, the party currently potential partners of the SPD and the Left Party on for election not as a party, but rather something like years one of the most dazzling figures in left-leaning enjoys third place, ahead of the AfD and only 3 one side of the aisle, and no longer just the secret a movement. The movement is directed at all three German politics. percentage points behind the SPD. dream partners of Angela Merkel and the CDU on parties that are left of center, including her own Left #Aufstehen does not see itself as a party, but rather In a political environment shaped by failures on the other. In 2013, the party rejected the chancel- Party, which was cobbled together from the remains a movement intent on influencing the public debate the left and on the right, how did Habeck succeed lor’s offer to join in forming a government. In 2017, of the SED – the state party of the former GDR – and while aligning the SPD, Greens and the Left Party in bringing consensus to a party with a strikingly during negotiations with Merkel’s Union parties and a West German spin-off from the SPD called Labor on a common, bolder course oriented more to the anti-populist, rather exhausting and above all eco- the FDP, the Greens were lauded for their creative and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative.

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