The SPD and 2021 Bundestag Election: Can the Party Recover?

In this webinar presented in partnership with the Aston Centre for Europe at Aston University, the International Association for the Study of German Politics and the BMW Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Jana Faus, Ed Turner, and Jennifer Yoder discuss the direction of the SPD before and after the 2021 Bundestag election.

The venerable Social Democratic Party of Germany is in a strange place as the 2021 Bundestag election approaches. On the one hand, it has been in the federal government for nineteen of the last twenty-three years and is responsible for numerous policy achievements over this period. It is also currently in twelve of sixteen state governments, leading seven. On the other hand, its electoral performance since 2017 has been abysmal, and the party is currently polling at 15-16 percent and behind the Greens. What accounts for this paradox? Will the party recover support by the time of the election? And what are its prospects beyond 2021?

This webinar is supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. It is presented in partnership with The Aston Centre for Europe, Aston University, Birmingham, UK; the International Association for the Study of German Politics; and the BMW Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University.