Is it a smart strategy of the SPD choosing a member of Merkel's administration?

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

My understanding is that over the past 8 years, but especially over the past 4, the SPD has actually gotten quite a bit of what they want in terms of actual policy. So from that standpoint, sure.

But agreeing to yet another grand coalition has been disastrous from an electoral standpoint. So from that standpoint, no. With the CDU occupying the centre, Grüne snatching up young left-leaning and environmental voters, and Die Linke capturing the disaffected left wing voters, there is no guarantee that the SPD will regain its strength in opposition. Its brand could be permanently damaged and seen as a party of the past, and going forward it could find its position vis-a-vis die Grüne reversed compared to the 2000s (i.e. die Grüne is the largest centre-left party, the SPD its junior).

Of course, had it chosen to form a Red-Red-Green coalition in 2005 or 2013, this could have invited a backlash if the government was seen as too extreme, and  there is no guarantee that its relationship with die Linke would have been stable and productive, given that it would have been a 180-degree U-turn from the Schröder years. And that's IF they managed to agree to a government deal at all in the first place.

Perhaps if it had emerged as the largest party in 2005 and the CDU made the junior partner, the roles may have been reversed. Who knows.

EDIT - i realize now that i completely misread the question above

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

(Just realized that I completely misread the title as "choosing to be a member of Merkel's administration" so my answer above makes no sense when read as a response to the original question and comes off as a total non sequiter, oopsies)


But to actually answer the question this time: perhaps. On one hand, Schulz is trusted, competent and known, on the other hand there is a desire for change among the electorate. But at the same time, no one else seemed to want it, and everyone seems to understand that it really doesn't matter because the CDU is almost certainly going to have the Chancellery after the election no matter who they go into coalition with. On the other hand, perhaps not having a chancellor candidate would be seen as an admission that they have no chance and are in decline, so having a candidate is just playing along.

So I would say "no", but simply because it doesn't matter and the SPD will almost certainly be in opposition after September.