[PEN-L:278] German SDP

[Gar Lipow <lipowg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I ran into the following assertion on another list from Richard Pond:

>"Schroeder himself has opportunist and centrist policies; he is very much comparable with Blair.  But it is important to remember that Schroeder does not equal the SPD.  The Social Democrats as a whole have not been
Blairized; Schroeder has never had the opportunities to "reform" his
party as Blair has.  And technically, although Schroeder is
Chancellor, the SPD leadership belongs to Oskar Lafontaine, a
leftwinger; some are predicting that Lafontaine will be "the power
behind the throne"; certainly Schroeder does not have the same
monopoly on power that Blair does, not even within his own party. "


How left is Oskar Lafontaine? How big is the "left" of the SDP? For
that matter how "left" is the left of the SDP? And how much power does
the party have vs. the Chancellor in practice? In short, are there
more grounds for optimism than appeared at first glance?

--
Gar W. Lipow
815 Dundee RD NW
Olympia, WA 98502
http://www.freetrain.org/