SPD chooses first female leader in hope of revamp
Andrea Nahles has replaced Martin Schulz as the leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Nahles, 47, is the first woman to lead the 154-year-old SPD.
She served as the Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs from 2013 to 2017.
Schulz resigned after his campaign for September’s election earned the SPD its worst results in about nine decades.
SPD is junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition.
After initial refusals to take part in Merkel’s coalition government, SPD leaders decided to extend the grand coalition with Merkel's CDU and the allied Bavarian Christian Social Union.
The coalition issue alienated major portions of the SPD's rank and file — in particular the party's youth division.
Nahles, who is a former SPD Youth Leader, is expected to renew and re-energize the party while ensuring that fellow party members do not create friction with cabinet ministers.
“You can renew a party while it’s in government. I want to prove that from tomorrow,” Nahles said in an impassioned speech before the vote, addressing widespread concerns in the SPD that it would have been easier to reinvent the party in opposition.
Germans, however, are not too sure about her abilities.
A recent poll by the Emnid run by Reuters news agency found that less than a quarter of the participants believed that Nahles could cooperate with Merkel’s coalition government to let it run smoothly and win back the lost voters confidence in the SPD at the same time.
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