The new SPD basic program: Not a bit of coming to terms with the past

E It’s quite strange. The SPD has also undertaken to work on a new basic program in response to the election defeat in 2025. But for the two party leaders Lars Klingbeil and Bärbel Bas, the historically poor federal election result is no longer worth mentioning. In their speeches at the weekend, with which they want to set the course for the SPD’s coming disputes, last year’s performance no longer plays a role.

With what expectations does the party leadership actually want to draw up a new basic program? Is it about dutifully getting through the process? Or can the SPD actually be expected to have political visions with which it wants to navigate through the age of human-AI relationships, hyper-capitalism and geopolitical power shifts?

In the end, the decisive factor will be whether the party succeeds in asking the right questions. But without an analysis of the path that degraded the SPD to the third strongest political force in Germany behind the AfD, there is no path to the future.

The party leadership must present theses

Unfortunately, the party leadership does not currently give the impression that it knows which direction this journey should take. The Union’s constant attacks on the welfare state make it easy for Bas and Klingbeil to present themselves as great protectors of workers’ rights and the welfare state. But no one should rest on their laurels. Especially since the SPD’s abolition of citizens’ money at the same time clearly demonstrates how it is repeatedly driven by dull populism in social policy.

Klingbeil announced that the party would be radically open to working on the new basic program and would also hold discussions that were uncomfortable. That would be desirable. But in order to even enter into this discussion, the party leadership must first present theses: about what led to the current misery – and what part they themselves played in it. Only then can the debate begin.