Wielcy przegrani. Socjaldemokratyczni kandydaci na kanclerza Niemiec w latach 2009-2017

• Authors: Koszel Bogdan

Title variants

EN

The great losers. Social Democratic Chancellor candidates in the years 2009-2017

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

In the article the author analyzes the election campaigns to the German Parliament of three Social- Democratic candidates (P. Steinbrück, F.-W. Steinmeier, M. Schulz) in the years 2009-2017. The author describes the political career of the candidates, focusing especially on the preparation for and progress of the successive election campaigns in 2009, 2013 and 2017. The main hypothesis was to verify the claim that although the candidates were well prepared and showed personal commitment, they had no chance of winning in confrontation with the experienced Chancellor Merkel. Their election defeat was an outcome of an all-European crisis of the social-democratic formation with a shrinking social (workingclass) backing. In this respect SPD did not differ much from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) or the crumbling Socialist Party of France. Besides, CDU cynically took over the social slogans of the left and lifted them on its own banners. Merkel did not hesitate to take over from SPD the postulate of a minimum per hour wage of € 8.50, or the idea to close down nuclear power plants, which was the main driving engine of The Greens’ election campaigns. In the article the descriptive, comparative, decision and statistical research methods were used.

Keywords

EN

Frank-Walter Steinmeier; Peer Steinbrück; Martin Schulz; Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD); Chancellor candidates

• Publisher: Instytut Zachodni. Instytut Naukowo-Badawczy im. Zygmunta Wojciechowskiego w Poznaniu
• Journal: Przegląd Zachodni
• Year: 2018
• Issue: 2(367)
• Pages: 39-59

Contributors

author

Koszel Bogdan

• Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza