Germany’s center left is on the brink of oblivion – POLITICO
The country’s non-starting “autumn of reforms” has already turned into the “spring of reforms,” with concrete proposals on several fronts yet to be reported. The initials results, on long-term care, are expected soon, followed by those on health care funding. After that, plans to reform the pension system are expected by June, so legislation can be drafted and submitted to parliament before it breaks for summer recess in July. Normally, all this would be a tall order for the SPD. But “major reforms must take place,” Klingbeil admitted in a recent keynote speech, and they must lead to “lower taxes, lower levies, less bureaucracy, competitive energy prices. In short: A country where work is worthwhile again.” This means the battle within the coalition will be focused on points of detail and priority that Merz and Klingbeil will argue over — both in private and performatively in public — to present their credentials to voters. But a much bigger question still looms over the SPD, just as it does with similar social democratic groupings in other …
