Who can the SPD possibly please anymore?

Their traditional clientele is disappearing. Fewer and fewer people understand them as classic industrial workers. The deindustrialization lamented everywhere is accelerating this process.

• The well-to-do middle class allows itself to be represented by the CDU,

• while those employed in the civil service and a large clientele in NGOs and foundations view the Greens as their lobby.
• The lower middle class is now orienting itself towards the AfD.

What remains for the SPD?

With her finance minister, she meanders aimlessly through the political arena, avoiding taking a firm stance. Her support for conscription, intended to appease the upper middle class, alienates her core constituency. In the pension dispute, she believes she has found a social democratic cause, but fails to communicate it effectively. At the height of the conflict, the party leader embarks on a foreign trip, leaving Ms. Bas to defend her position. Meanwhile, industry representatives sneer at the leader of the party polling at 13%.

Merz is under pressure, and the FAZ is recommending a minority government for the CDU. This would be a major blow to the SPD's functionary clique, as their participation in government has been very lucrative in recent years. A broad cross-section of party supporters has been satisfied.

But the base is shrinking. A people's party, that's a thing of the past.

The SPD can no longer produce a W. Brandt or H. Schmidt; the social necessity for the party's existence no longer exists.

The bourgeois parties are deciding the social cutbacks among themselves.

A new working class failed to form. And the lower classes are traditionally without political representation.