Wed 24 Jan 2018, 07:48 AM | Posted by editor
TURKEYS MAY NOT VOTE FOR CHRISTMAS AFTER ALL.
After the German SDP leadership managed to scrape a 55-45 majority at last Sunday’s conference in favour of a new ‘grand coalition’ with Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU, there has been a backlash from SDP supporters.
The main opposition to a new coalition has been the SDP youth wing, the Jusos, and answering their call for SDP voters to join the party to oppose the leadership, there has been a surge of membership applications. Now agreement on a coalition by the scheduled ballot of members is being thrown into doubt.
Party branches across the country are reporting an extraordinary jump in applications. “A spokesman for the SDP branch in North Rhine-Westphalia, the biggest in Germany by far”, the Financial Times reports, “said about 600 people had applied to join the party between Monday and midday Tuesday.”
Joining only costs 10 Euros and the Jusos have launched the slogan, “Stop the grand coalition for a tenner!”.
Just as we had in Britain, when tens of thousands of Corbyn-supporters joined the Labour Party to elect a radical leader, German right-wing MPs, instead of welcoming new members, are bleating out their opposition. “I have a problem with the suggestion that you can join the party, vote [in the party plebiscite] and then leave again”, One SDP MP complained, “Party membership means that you are committed to our basic values”.
This MP is ignoring the fact that it is precisely these coalitions with conservative parties that represent a drift AWAY from the party’s traditional values. That is why the SDP vote was one of its lowest-ever in the recent election – just over 20 per cent – and why it is polling even less now. It is clear that a significant number of the stauncher SDP voters are now voicing their objections to the leadership. What is perhaps more unsettling for the SDP right-wing leadership, is the likelihood that these new members will not just leave once the vote is over.
