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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7963
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 FRANKFURT 002853 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL GM
SUBJECT: SPD's New Leadership Faces Challenges on the Left 
 
REF: Frankfurt 2701; Berlin 1231 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  Newly-chosen SPD national leaders FM Frank-Walter 
Steinmeier and Franz Muentefering face the critical task of 
reuniting a divided party and fending off the rise of the Left Party 
in the run up to the 2009 federal election.  In two western states, 
Hesse and Saarland, the local SPDs present challenges to the 
national party as both consider cooperation with the Left as a way 
to gain power at the state level.  The Hesse SPD and Greens are 
moving forward with plans to form a minority government in November 
supported by the Left.  In Saarland, the SPD faces a strong 
challenge from the Left and its candidate Oskar Lafontaine in the 
August 2009 state election and the possibility that forming a 
coalition with the Left represents its best chance to govern.  As 
the SPD's new right-leaning national leaders plot the way forward, 
the actions of their left-leaning compatriots in Hesse and Saarland 
will test Steinmeier and Muenterfering's leadership and credibility. 
 END SUMMARY. 
 
Hesse and Saarland SPDs Register Break 
 
¶2.  The national Social Democratic Party (SPD) party executive 
board's September 7 decision to have Frank-Walter Steinmeier become 
the SPD's Chancellor candidate in 2009 and Franz Muentefering party 
chairman marked an abrupt move to the right in the party's 
leadership.  While the party executive board approved the change 
with forty-four votes for, one against and five abstentions, the 
voting revealed existing fissures in the SPD.  State Chairpersons 
from Hesse and Saarland, Andrea Ypsilanti and Heiko Maas, both 
abstained while Saarland Bundestag member Ottmar Schreiner was the 
only board member to vote against the move.  The left-leaning 
parties in Hesse and Saarland support additional rollbacks of 
economic reform that the new leadership is likely to resist and 
voting for the leadership change would no doubt have damaged 
credibility with the party base in both those states. 
 
Hesse Stays the Course on Minority Government 
 
¶3.  Despite the changes in national leadership, the Hesse SPD plans 
to move forward with its plan to unseat the Christian Democratic 
Union (CDU) caretaker government of Minister President Roland Koch 
by forming a Red-Green minority government supported by the Left 
Party (see ref A).  The vote will take place in the beginning of 
November.  One of Ypsilanti's advisors, Thorsten Schaefer-Guembel, 
told Pol Spec that the state party will not change its course, even 
though the new national leaders have previously spoken out against 
this option.  Steinmeier and Muentefering have both stressed that 
they do not intend to interfere with Ypsilanti's plans, but also 
emphasized they would not cooperate with the Left on the national 
level. 
 
¶4.  With cooperation between the SPD and the Left also looming in 
Saarland, the national leadership stands to gain little by taking a 
hard line in Hesse at a time when it needs to unite the party for 
the national election.  Juergen Walter, the unofficial leader of the 
conservative wing of the Hesse SPD, agreed, telling Pol Spec that 
the change in leadership all but guaranteed the success of the 
minority government plan in Hesse as the national leadership can not 
risk alienating a local chapter.  Without any better options, 
Steinmeier and Muntefering can only hope that the minority 
government will succeed in Hesse and serve as proof that the dangers 
of Left Party cooperation are overstated. 
 
Saarland SPD Also Leaning Left 
 
¶5.  The election in Saarland scheduled for August 30, 2009 (one 
month before the federal election) will be an important show-down 
between the SPD and the Left Party, with the latter led by the 
populist National Left Party Chairperson Oskar Lafontaine.  The Left 
Party in this western state is now polling at 24%, one point above 
the SPD.  Both sides are fighting for positions on the left of the 
political spectrum.  Lafontaine did not hesitate to argue that the 
change in SPD's national leadership shows that the SPD has returned 
to its old reform-oriented politics, while the Left is the only 
party that represents the have-nots.  Saarland SPD leader Maas 
rejected the argument saying that the SPD has moved decidedly away 
from its reform agenda.  As in Hesse, the Saarland SPD leadership 
continues to lean left, away from the politics of Steinmeier and 
Muentefering and may face a tough choice after the election of 
governing with the Left Party, if it comes out ahead of the Left or 
being a junior partner in a coalition with the CDU, if the CDU has 
no other viable coalition options.  Maas has opposed the option of 
being the junior partner in a coalition with the Left. 
 
¶5. COMMENT: Going into the 2009 election, Steinmeier and 
Muentefering face the daunting task of turning around a divided 
party and reversing its precipitous drop in popularity.  The 
challenge of uniting the party is exemplified in both Hesse and 
Saarland where the local parties lean far to the left.  Most 
 
FRANKFURT 00002853  002 OF 002 
 
 
importantly, both state parties currently entertain setting a 
precedent in a western state by working with the Left Party - 
something at odds with the views of the new national SPD leadership. 
 However, the national leadership appears to have no choice but to 
allow the state parties to go forward with such plans at this point 
for the sake of party unity.  The challenge for the national SPD 
will remain to convince voters that developments in these states 
will not apply at the national level and to present itself as the 
credible party of social justice and a viable alternative to the 
CDU.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶6.  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
POWELL