There is about a year for the elections in GERMANY. Chancellor Angela Merkel will not run for elections. The elections mean the end of the Merkel era, the beginning of a new era for Germany. Cards will be shuffled again in the world of politics. Disappointed with every election, the Social Democrats (SPD) acted very quickly this time. He declared Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as the candidate for prime minister, shining with the promise "We will get out of the corona crisis". He gained a strategic advantage.
The SPD surprised with this early behavior. But he also surprised with Olaf Scholz. Olaf Scholz played for the SPD leadership just 9 months ago, with the goal of becoming prime minister. But the members did not want Scholz as chairman. Scholz lost the race for leadership to left wing representatives Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter Borjans. Scholz’s dream of nomination for prime minister was in vain with his party leadership defeat.
Scholz was deeply disappointed. He could not come to him for a long time. It was deleted from the political scene. Will he continue as the Minister of Finance, even the question came up. But with the corona epidemic, Scholz's star shined again. Suddenly, he was on the rise in polls and is now the SPD's most popular politician. But the SPD is making the same mistake for the last three elections. Whoever was leading in the polls made him a candidate for prime minister and lost. Peer Steinbrück, who led the polls among the three candidates in the 2013 elections, drove the race against Merkel. He lost. In the 2017 elections, polls again decided on the question of Sigmar Gabriel, Martin Schulz or Olaf Scholz. The Martin Schulz trial, which was put on the field with great hope against Merkel, resulted in great disappointment.
Surveys snapshots. Especially the surveys in the shadow of the corona epidemic. Because there are three most prominent political figures in the media in the epidemic: Prime Minister Merkel, Finance Minister Scholz and Health Minister Spahn. Neither Merkel nor Health Minister Spahn are candidates for prime minister. The SPD saw this as a chance.
But SPD members wanted a left-wing policy, electing Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter Borjans as co-chairmen of the left wing. Olaf Scholz is from the conservative wing of the SPD. Scholz was the SPD's general secretary under Gerhard Schröder, one of the former prime ministers known for his bitter reforms against employees. He defended Schröder's reforms named "2010 Agenda", which facilitates layoffs and shortens the duration of unemployment benefit. The SPD has always lost elections since these reforms.