Der endgultige Abschied von der Macht oder Der Wahlkampf der Illusionen

In: Neue soziale Bewegungen: Forschungsjournal, Band 23, Heft 1, S. 39-46

Abstract

Matthias Machnig identifies two aspects in the SPD election campaign which are responsible for the massive loss of votes in the 2009 Bundestag election: the dependency on wrong assumptions on one hand, strong strategy deficits on the other. In spite of its being non-realistic, the SPD insisted on both having a candidate for the office of chancellor and on the possibility of a three-way red-yellow-green coalition, which had already been denied by the FDP. Also, the SPD did not realize the fight for the 'center of society' had already been won by the CDU. The greatest strategic deficit was the nomination of a candidate to run for chancellor without designing a campaign strategy and resolving the way of further acting in the 'grand coalition' -- consensus or conflict -- at the same time. The exact role allocation between Franz Muntefering and Frank-Walter Steinmeier was left open: Also, the SPD failed to tackle the topic of the economical crisis with own strategic ideas. To run a successful political campaign, one needs to determine for which topics and persons or against which parties and policies one fights; the SPD failed to do both. Adapted from the source document.