From now on it will be more difficult for the SPD.

The congratulations have been distributed, now the traffic light routine begins.

The new partners have to get to know each other even more.

They don't like everything they discover about each other.

There are also German and international conflicts and crises.

Ultimately, the party's fragile stability must be preserved.

The SPD has successfully learned from mistakes, now it has to learn from its success.

Open end.

The CDU and CSU have rightly recognized that they lacked a socio-political profile and that is why they did poorly in the federal election. What is the SPD lacking? The question arises because the election result of 25.7 percent still leaves a lot of room for improvement. It is astonishing that Lars Klingbeil, whose good result in the election as SPD chairman makes him the strongest person after Chancellor Olaf Scholz, tries to spice up the progress story of the new coalition by painting the picture of a musty and neoliberal Merkel era. It was supported by the SPD in twelve of 16 years, and the party now has a chancellor who makes the diamond. Klingbeil's rhetoric may get caught in the SPD. The majority of the party gathers behind him. But does it affect the feeling of the voters?

Example East Germany. There the SPD has grown enormously in the weeks leading up to the general election. A study by the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation shows that it was mainly pensioners who made their mark on the SPD. So it wasn't the people who work in the low-wage sector and whom the SPD actually wanted to reach with its respect campaign. By raising the minimum wage, the party is now helping many citizens there who do not feel represented by it and have voted for the AfD, for example. This is an opportunity for the SPD. If she realizes that the topic of the East is not checked off for her.

The SPD is still pretty much about itself. At the weekend, the leading ruling party of Europe's largest economic power held its party conference. Due to Corona, the format has been forced to shrink. Taking that into account, the event seemed rather musty to choose a word from the new chairman. Is that still sympathetic or is it the inability of the SPD to live up to its new role?

There was a motion demanding more pressure on the Minsk regime. But otherwise only the peace appeal from parliamentary group chairman Rolf Mützenich could be heard on the subject, the tenor: dialogue is the solution. Not a word about Russia's dangerous game. Is that supposed to be Germany's position on the subject in and for Europe? That suggests something bad, especially since Manuela Schwesig, who is friendly to Russia and Nord Stream 2, holds a powerful position in the party after her brilliant election victory in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Fortunately, it must be said, there is still the Chancellor. Scholz has a different role than his party colleagues, who see themselves primarily as just that: party members. Scholz has so far expressed himself cautiously to definitely. He can't just hide topics. No wonder, then, that Scholz is significantly more economical in speaking of the “social democratic decade” than his party leadership. After all, the Greens and FDP together achieved more percent than the SPD. With Klingbeil and Kevin Kühnert, the Social Democrats have as young a party leadership as never before. But in the election only 15 percent of the first-time voters voted, so the SPD was far behind the FDP and the Greens.

Scholz is not the SPD, and neither is the SPD Scholz. In his speeches you can at least guess that good and satisfied employers are also required for good work and fair wages. Some in the party would like to leave uncomfortable issues such as the middle class entirely to the FDP. But this convenient division of labor in the traffic light alliance must not be an option for the SPD People's Party. Especially since it claims full-bodied that it wants to shape the entire decade.

Currently, the SPD is mainly showing its old box office hit, which is already emblazoned on its traditional flag: Unity makes you strong.

But the picture is diffuse.

In the election for Chancellor, the SPD was able to impose the missing votes for Scholz on the Greens and the FDP.

The at best mediocre results for party chairman Saskia Esken and the new general secretary Kühnert reveal a latent dissatisfaction with the two left parties.

And this time it seems to come from the pragmatic and pro-government part of the party.

The SPD remains a complicated party.