European elections: The Social Democrats want to dream again - but from what?

You can celebrate yourself, you have to leave that to the Social Democrats. Singing, waving and dancing, her European leaders are on stage on Saturday afternoon at the Teatro Coliseum in Madrid. A band plays "Bella Ciao". Frans Timmermans, Social Democratic leading candidate for the European elections, bounces up and down the stage. Next to him is Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The more than 1000 members of the party family cheer and dance with. At the top of the rank, an elderly gentleman wields a Che Guevara flag.

It is the grand finale of the two-day European Elections Congress, at which the Party of European Socialists (PES) has decided its election program. There is currently little to celebrate for the SPE actually. If the Europeans go to the polls at the end of May, the Social Democrats are in danger of disaster: According to a recent forecast, they have to expect the loss of more than 50 seats, which would for the first time represent less than 20 percent of MEPs.

The fact that under these circumstances EU Commission Vice-President Timmermans has a chance to take over the office of his current boss, Jean-Claude Juncker, few believe outside the PES. The Christian Democrats and their leading candidate, Manfred Weber, are likely to become the strongest force in the European Parliament - even if the polls also predict heavy losses for them.

"We are still in second place"

Timmermans is unimpressed by it. "We are still in second place in the polls, but that can change," Timmermans told SPIEGEL. Moreover, the Social Democrats would not necessarily have to be the strongest force to make the Commission President. "That depends on who gets a majority in the European Parliament." (Read more about the "Anti-Orbán" here.)

How a majority that Timmermans chooses to serve as president of the commission might depend on the choice - "and the interesting thing about this European election is that nothing is predictable." Anyway, the Christian Democrats of the European People's Party should not be too sure that nothing works without them. "There may also be a majority without the EPP," says Timmermans.

But behind the almost defiant confidence is also in Madrid the uncertainty of the Social Democrats felt. Actually, many people here mean that the voices just have to fly to them like that. The gap between rich and poor continues to widen, housing in cities is priceless even for high earners, demographic change undermines social systems, digitalisation threatens millions of jobs. "These people have to turn to anyone," says SPD MEP Jo Leinen. "And that can only be us."

No vision for too long

While some polls have seen some upsets for the Social Democrats, there is no question of an influx of voters - let alone a return to old strength. If you ask the congress participants in Madrid for the reasons, almost everyone has their own theory.

Some say it was government responsibility in the years following the 2008 financial crisis. "We were not always rewarded by voters," says Timmermans. Others criticize the Social Democrats for losing sight of their original clientele. Sure, exchange programs like "Erasmus" are a great thing, says a speaker at the congress. "But do the people in the ghettos have any of this?"

Only one seems to be able to agree on almost all: People have not offered a vision for too long.

With this, the Social Democrats continue to struggle. "A new social contract for Europe" is the title of their election program. What that means is not obvious, but you have to read the election program - but how many voters do that?

If you ask congress participants which keywords you might throw into the election campaign, entertaining group discussions ensue. "Sustainability does not work somehow," says one delegate. "Social contract too," another raises. "European Solidarity - End of Austerity - Sounds Not Good," says a third party. "Maybe: 'More tax justice'?"

"We have lost the heart"

Social Democracy has "lost its heart," is the diagnosis of top candidate Timmermans, the heart of the voter. But how is it to win back? "Let our children dream again," Timmermans said at the congress. Dreaming about what? "From a good future," he replies on demand. You just have to appeal again to the heart of the people - and not to the stomach. That is the scam of the right-wing populists.

But that is successful. According to the polls, populists, right-wing extremists and enemies of the EU will rise strongly in the election. Their advantage is that their message can actually be summed up in one sentence: build walls and close the gates to preserve the identity.

"The Social Democrats always have difficulties when it comes to identity," admits Timmermans. "We can not handle that well." It is a legacy of the French Revolution that social democracy considers man as an individual "and not as part of a tribe or a nation."

The radicals succeeded in rebuilding enemy images. "We can not compete with other enemy images," Timmermans says as he walks to a meeting with young activists in a Madrid park after the congress. "We have to put solutions on the table."

Three months until the European elections. Three short months in which the Social Democrats have time to give people a new account of Europe and of themselves. Maybe the keyword is the Twitter hashtag for the PES Congress: #Itstime. It's time.