SPD starts with members' consultation

berlin - The SPD officially starts Tuesday with the members' consultation on the formation of a new coalition with CDU / CSU. The approximately 463,000 party members must have the pieces on this reference date to be able to make an assessment of government participation. The voting notes must be submitted to the party management by no later than 2 March.

Europe is eagerly waiting for the results on 4 March. It is not predictable in advance. After the sudden retirement of Martin Schulz, the new party summit with interim chairman Olaf Scholz and intended successor Andrea Nahles will go into the country to convince the constituents of the value of the closed coalition agreement. Seven conferences are planned in the region.

A debate with Kevin Kühnert, the chairman of the Young Socialists and outspoken opponent of the big coalition, is not on the agenda. The SPD won quite a lot in the negotiations with the Christian Democrats. It has been agreed that an extra 46 billion euros will be invested in, among other things, pensions, employment contracts, healthcare, housing, schools and the health system.

Yet many Social Democrats do not see cooperation with Angela Merkel. According to them, it is more of the same rather than a real political change of course. Clear measures to do something about the differences between rich and poor and the splitting of society are missing, for example. On the other side, they also fear new elections. In the last poll, the SPD (15.5 percent) was overtaken by the right-wing populist AfD (16 percent).