German Elections & Politics

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On Kraft, don't forget she has to still win reelection in North Rhine-Westphalia before the next general election.

The voters there would probably react badly if it looked like she was just using the Minister-Presidency as a placeholder until 2017.

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Probably a tactical mistake by the SPD, but hey, they'll surely do better than the FPD.

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Slight bounce for the SPD in the first Infratest dimap poll since the new government took over.

CDU/CSU: 42%
SPD: 27%
Grüne: 9%
Linke: 8%

AfD: 4%
FDP: 4%

They should enjoy it while they can.  Hopefully, they'll drop to all-time lows very soon.  The SPD is dead for all true intents and purposes.

Why are people here so negative on the SPD?

They're to the right of most European mainstream-left parties (emphasis on the word 'European', of course), and there's a perception (that reminds me of similarly absurd ideas about the GOP, actually) that they're going to die out and be overtaken by the Greens.

The SPD are truly in a crap position, but this always gets said about the mainstream left in Europe. See: 1980s/early 90s UK Labour, the PS throughout its existence.

Merkel's popular and the SPD isn't. Simple as that really. When they can reverse that, they'll be able to lead a government again.

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The Grand Coalition is now talking about extending the legislative term from 4 years to 5 years

Horrible idea. From my French experience, I can testify that 5 year terms are waaaay too long.

They really are. Four's about right, I'd say.

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The SPD is reportedly trying to hire Obama's former campaign manager and Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina as an advisor for the 2017 election in Germany.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/spd-will-chef-wahlkaempfer-von-barack-obama-holen-a-1017178.html

He gets about doesn't he. Works for the Tories as well.