Leaders of Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) have embraced the prospect of a big-bang reform programme following two stinging setbacks in weekend elections.
In Sunday’s mayoral run-off in Munich, the SPD lost control of the city hall it has controlled almost continuously since 1948.
Meanwhile, an election in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate saw the SPD finish second for the first time in 35 years.
Two weeks ago, in the neighbouring state of Baden-Württemberg, the SPD polled just 5.5 per cent.
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On Monday in Berlin, SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil, federal finance minister, rejected resignation calls and said major reform was the only realistic path ahead. “Given the country’s challenges we want to shape the future, not with a change of faces but with a clear programmatic path,” said Klingbeil. “The question is what has to change with us that the SPD can be strong once more.”
Dejected SPD leaders in Rhineland-Palatinate sounded the alarm as the local far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged 10 points to 19 per cent, a record in a western German state that mirrored the SPD’s slide in support. Post-election analysis showed the AfD attracted 30 per cent of working-class voters in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Benedikt Oster, the SPD’s state parliamentary party leader, said his party was “losing workers in a massive way, that is no coincidence but home-made”.
“We need a labour minister who pushes politics for hard-working people,” said Oster, “and not a minister for the unemployed.”
That was a swipe at Bärbel Bas, leftist SPD co-leader in Berlin and federal labour minister, who has defended welfare payments since taking office last May.
On Monday she struck a different tone, saying the “dramatic” election results left no option but “to continue the path of reform”.
Klingbeil is likely to give a preview of coming reforms, including tax cuts and welfare savings, in a keynote address on Wednesday.
Such a shift is seen as unavoidable for the SPD, which is down two points in polls on last year’s historic election low of 16 per cent.
The policy change would see a departure from its leftist election programme and move the party towards its centre-right senior coalition partner, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
On Monday, CDU leader and chancellor Friedrich Merz described Sunday’s election results as a political “incentive”, in particular as a six-month poll-free window looms until the next state elections in September.
Merz said he wanted to “move forward with the coalition, with the SPD” to “get our country back on track”.
“We must now, above all, make policy for the working population, for workers, but also for the middle class,” he said. “For private households and businesses in Germany, the costs are simply too high: labour costs, the cost of living, the costs and burdens of bureaucracy.”
After years of stagnation, growth estimates for Germany’s economy in 2026 are as high as 1.5 per cent – though that could be undone by the spike in world energy prices.
Munich made history on Sunday evening. After backing SPD mayors for 72 of the last 78 years, 56 per cent of city voters elected their first Green mayor: the 35 year-old physics graduate and local politician, Dominik Krause.
At Sunday’s election party, Krause thanked voters – and his fiancee Sebastian Müller – for their support. After 12 years in power, outgoing SPD mayor Dieter Reiter admitted he “messed it up”.
That was a nod to a campaign revelation that, without seeking city council approval, he accepted payments as an advisory board member for soccer club Bayern Munich
