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Olaf Scholz has curls.
Or better: he would have it if he let the remaining hair grow on his head.
But what he does not do, because the SPD candidate for chancellor finds it “not so advantageous”, as he recently admitted on the political Ash Wednesday.
Olaf Scholz can safely trim his practical short hairstyle in the home office.
The most important corona easing in months, which came into force on Monday, has little effect on him: the opening of the hairdressers.
And what about other loosening of the lockdown anyway?
Scholz and the SPD leaders Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans set other priorities on this day: They presented the draft of their election program.
He's a bit brave and a bit of a balancing act to somehow involve everyone in the party and in the country.
It's a bit left, but not so much that the electorate should now fear that it is bypassing the specter of socialism.
And one thing is very clear: the final departure from Agenda 2010.
As promised by Secretary General Lars Klingbeil, the draft program is short.
Only 48 pages thick, or rather thin.
Because for SPD conditions it is clear.
It contains four so-called future missions that Scholz presented a few weeks ago: a climate-neutral Germany, a modern mobility system, an expansion of digitization and a further development of the health system.
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The core of the program, however, is somewhat hidden, roughly in the middle: the citizens' money.
It should replace Hartz IV.
The basic security that the left wing has never seen as such, more like a coffin pin of social democracy.
Others see the Hartz reforms of then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as the basis for growth and current prosperity - the basis with which Angela Merkel (CDU) was able to govern so cheerfully.
Dare more government, more debts, more taxes
The resistance within the party to break away from the core of the Hartz reforms was low, despite their symbolic power.
“Every time needs its answers.
Agenda 2010 has no answers to today's challenges.
This requires new ideas and concepts, ”says Matthias Machnig, long-time SPD State Secretary, State Minister and coordinator of federal election campaigns in the Willy Brandt House.
So now the role backwards, flanked by other, classic left-wing SPD issues: the reintroduction of wealth and inheritance tax, the rent moratorium, high state investments.
At least 50 billion euros per year.
This is to be paid for, among other things, with tax increases for higher earners (from 500,000 euros per year for married people), the solos for higher earners, restrictions on the tax deductibility of manager salaries or a financial transaction tax, a digital tax for tech companies.
Dare more government, more debt, more taxes, that is the concept.
It's not new.
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On the other hand, the SPD is making offers that are intended to appeal to a broad section of the electorate: betterment for middle incomes, a climate protection policy that is less radical than that of the Greens, plus funding for innovations and digitization.
It is a compromise between Esken and Scholz SPD, which should unite large sections of the party behind it.
At the same time, there is a risk that voters will ultimately not know what the SPD actually stands for: does it want to be a left-wing clientele party or a people's party that supports the state?
In any case, the SPD does not want this draft to be a GroKo 4.0 - if you count the first from 2005 to 2009.
Because on the basis of this program there should no longer be a coalition with the Union.
Not with the FDP anyway.
So the design is a commitment to red-red-green.
Or green-red-red?
The SPD is thus making a little more space in the middle and giving the Union and the Greens more leeway there.
It's a risky game.
On the other hand, “business as usual” would inevitably have further marginalized the SPD.
Core elements of the program were prepared by the party leader at the time, Andrea Nahles.
Since the disastrous election result in the 2017 federal election, the party has been looking for salvation in a left-wing course.
"We will leave Hartz IV behind," said Nahles at a so-called debate camp of the party at the end of 2018 - and thus set the stage for a break with the Schröder reforms.
In February 2019, the party executive passed a new welfare state paper that already contained core elements of the current election program.
The SPD gave the concept its blessing at a party congress in late 2019, shortly after it had elected Esken and Walter-Borjans to the top.
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The reintroduction of the wealth tax, which can now also be found in the election program, was also decided back then.
The tax was a “real issue of justice,” said the then acting party leader Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel in the summer of 2019. The 45 richest families in Germany owned as much as half of the population.
This creates a pronounced "feeling of injustice".
There is also a high need for investment that has to be financed.
At that time, the party hoped to generate around ten billion euros in additional tax income a year.
A more social housing policy is already part of the SPD party program.
In 2019, the comrades decided on “a five-year rent moratorium in cities with a tight housing market”, which means: rents may not be increased for a certain period of time;
at least not beyond the inflation rate.
The model was the red-red-green ruled Berlin, which decided to freeze rents in June 2019.
At the same time, there was a strong focus on promoting social housing.
The draft election program therefore continues the left-wing course of the party in recent years.
He's not a big surprise.
At the same time, however, there are many passages on the 48 pages that can be read as an offer to a wide range of voters.
For example, when there is talk of wanting to “improve” middle incomes with an income tax reform.
Or when there is talk of wanting to achieve the climate policy goals.
At the same time, however, to want to ensure that jobs are preserved.
The SPD does not want to be climate neutral until 2050.
The program is thrown together
If the party wants to provide a chancellor, it has to look at a clientele that extends beyond the SPD, according to Scholz's circle.
Even if this is largely neglected in the draft program.
After all, demands for radical economic reforms do not fit into the program any more than a policy that is more concerned with the minorities of society than with the majorities.
As a result, however, the program seems thrown together: Everyone will be able to find something to identify with.
The danger again threatens that in the end hardly anyone can say which core issues the SPD now stands for.
For the time being, however, there is great support in the party - from all camps.
At the moment, comrades never tire of conveying unity.
No matter where you call, the same core messages everywhere.
A striking truce that unites the wings.
Party leftists also speak up with praise: “With the draft program we are showing that the SPD stands for something again,” says Cansel Kiziltepe, member of the Bundestag, WELT.
Kiziltepe belongs to the association of the parliamentary left.
Citizens' benefits, employment insurance and “a fair tax system with wealth tax” are important milestones.
"The future program sharpens the profile of the SPD as a left and progressive people's party that wants to make politics for the people next door."
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The Jusos, who drove the party for a long time with demands for a left reorientation, also expressed support.
"For us Jusos there are many important aspects in the election manifesto", said the new chairman and successor to Kevin Kühnert, Jessica Rosenthal, WELT.
"We can recognize the handwriting of our two chairmen just as clearly as that of Kevin Kühnert, for example in a strong chapter on housing and public services."
In the past few years, the SPD has "positioned itself more progressively, even under the influence of the Jusos".
This is reflected in the draft of the electoral program: “We renounce Hartz IV and want to replace it with a fairer citizen's allowance, we want to increase the minimum wage to twelve euros, but above all with a wealth tax and higher top tax rates, the principle of“ strong shoulders carry more "realize again."
With a view to young people, however, the draft is not enough.
A “general, pay-as-you-go training guarantee” is needed, as well as a significant increase in BAföG.
“We also want everyone to be able to take the bus or train from their front door.
Therefore, local transport not only has to be expanded, but also financed by contributions and ticket-free. "
The Juso chairwoman also calls for improvements to be made with regard to climate policy: The SPD's goal must be "significantly more ambitious": "We need climate neutrality here by 2040, as is the party's decision-making process."