HANOVER, Germany – Peer Steinbrück is a name the world will be hearing a lot more often in the New Year. On Sunday, Germany’s Social Democratic Party nominated the former finance minister to challenge Angela Merkel for the job of chancellor next year.
Steinbrück had enough trouble rallying his party after an uproar over his hefty lecture fees and inability to keep his feet out of his mouth. Now he must convince the rest of the country to abandon Merkel in the middle of the euro crisis – and that he is the man to replace her.
The convention on the vast Hanover fairgrounds was a bare-bones affair. There was no loud rock music or confetti. It being a gathering of German leftists, not a single national flag was in sight. The whole formality of picking Steinbrück – he was unchallenged for the nomination – was planned to fit into five hours, with no breaks for coffee, lunch or dissent.
Only Steinbrück took the liberty of straying from schedule, rambling for nearly two hours through a crazy-quilt speech designed to emphasize his commitment to social justice, pillory the ruling Christian Democrats and congratulate his 149-year-old party for “never standing on the wrong side of history.” Steinbrück’s dry wit and personal anecdotes got buried under laundry lists of campaign promises meant to bring around skeptics.
Steinbrück had to dispel the common image of him as an elitist. He earned more than $1.6 million as a speaker over the past three years, and he recently claimed he wouldn’t buy a bottle of pinot grigio costing less than $7.
Nobody doubts Steinbrück’s competence; after all he was Merkel’s finance minister in the “grand coalition” between Christian and Social Democrats that lasted until 2009. What Steinbrück lacks is the charisma of Gerhard Schröder, the last Social Democrat to win the chancellorship.
I recall a Schröder campaign event in 1998 not far from Hanover, where he tugged at voters’ heartstrings like a German Bill Clinton. Bespectacled and balding, Steinbrück has the charm of a bank manager. The only moment when I saw him betray any emotion at the convention was when he punched the air at the end of the delegates’ 10-minute standing ovation.
The party’s show of unity seemed forced. An observer from the office of President Joachim Gauck, an independent, bluntly told me that Steinbrück’s nomination was the result of a process of elimination: other leaders like former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier or the party chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, are even less electable.
All the Social Democrats I approached at the convention at first defended their candidate. But when I dug deeper, a parliamentarian from northern Germany admitted that she saw Steinbrück as a transition figure to bridge the way for Hannelore Kraft, the popular but inexperienced premier of North Rhine-Westphalia. A trade-union boss confessed that only an economic downturn would give Steinbrück a fighting chance.
Steinbrück’s biggest challenge is named Angela Merkel, who takes credit for the German economy’s robust performance throughout the euro crisis. As she steers Europe’s largest country with matronly confidence, Merkel is often referred to as the “mother of the nation.” If Germans could directly cast a vote for chancellor, 49 percent would choose Merkel and only 39 percent Steinbrück, according to a poll released last week.
Steinbrück has ruled out another grand coalition and said he’d like to govern together with the left-wing Greens. That may have helped him win over his party, but it’s a long way from persuading undecided voters and ousting Merkel.
