German Elections & Politics

[aross]

I cannot understand the SPD membership, why do they keep Gabriel in place? the party is clearly drifting into a junior coalition partner oblivion

Internal democracy in the SPD has always been very weak (e.g. Helmut Schmidt, who managed to cling to office despite being basically the only the person in the party supporting his pro-cruise missile defence policy), and a membership increasingly consisting of pensioners hasn't helped.