07.05.1998

Germany - SPD follows New Labour lead

The result of the April 26 local elections in Sachsen-Anhalt tells much about the political situation in Germany as a whole. The fascists gained over 10% and the Social Democrats (SPD) were the nominal winners with just 35% of the votes. It is very likely that the general elections in September will see a similar outcome, with a very weak showing for the conservative Christian Democratic Union and the Green Party.

There will be no landslide victory for the SPD’s Gerhard Schroeder in September. People are not enthusiastic about this Blairite candidate for chancellor. They will vote for him reluctantly in the absence of any credible alternatives. The PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) has retreated from all-German politics and decided at its last congress to concentrate on what is terms ‘east German’ questions. The Green Party has shed its radical image and advanced explicitly anti-working class demands: for example raising the price of petrol to £2 a litre.

In 1994 Helmut Kohl won the elections despite a drop in support for the Christian Democrats. This result is very unlikely for 1998, however, given the ‘repackaging’ of the social democrats. Following the lead of its British counterpart, the SPD has totally remade itself in recent years. Like Labour it was an organisation with close union links that at least made noises about improving the situation of the working class. Now it has changed into a ‘new’, ‘modern’ party, concerned mainly to improve the Standort Deutschland - the economic performance of German industry.

Gerhard Schroeder in particular is known as a friend of the bosses. As president of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) he has always been keen to attract industry to his federal state and has paid out millions of marks in subsidies to business - taxes raised overwhelmingly from the working class, of course. With the demand to reduce the highest tax rate from 53% to 49% the SPD has openly addressed its preferred audience - the bourgeoisie. And the fat cats are grateful. Almost all bourgeois papers are enthusiastically supporting Gerhard Schroeder, even the arch-conservative tabloid Bild.

German industry is quite keen to get a social democratic chancellor. It knows full well that nothing will really change, but a fresh face might produce a more dynamic image capable of restoring social consensus and reinvigorating investment.

The working class of course can expect nothing from Schroeder. Following Blair’s lead, the SPD election programme restricts itself to a few modest promises, such as a marginal rise in child benefit and increased statutory sick pay. But even these two points - the central pillars of the whole election campaign - are subject to Finanzierungsvorbehalt: that is, if the SPD discovers the coffers are bare, it will abandon even these ‘commitments’.

Just as in Britain, much of the German left has convinced itself that a social democratic government will automatically produce favourable conditions for working class struggles to develop. They should take a look at Britain after one year of ‘New Labour’.

Kathrin Maurer