New leadership

Fifty-year-old Sigmar Gabriel replaced veteran Franz Muenterfering at the helm of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Friday. The former environment minister ran unopposed to lead Germany's oldest party, which traces its origins back to 1863.

Some 500 delegates cast their votes at a party congress in the eastern city of Dresden, called to debate the reasons for the party's crushing election loss in September and to elect a new leadership.

Gabriel, who won 94 percent of the vote, however refrained from blaming predecessor Franz Muentefering in his speech on the first day of the two-day meeting.

The meeting comes just weeks after the SPD crashed out of power with an 11-point plunge to 23 percent of the popular vote, their worst result since the end of World War Two. It was an abysmal performance by a party that won 41 percent of the vote when Gerhard Schroeder moved into the chancellery back in 1998.

"We've got to be open about our mistakes and talk about what has to be changed," Gabriel said, adding: "But I'm against splitting the party into two groups - those who 'knew better all along' and those who 'did everything wrong'."

He also said the center-left party was wrong to trust the ideology of the free market.

"We have got to offer voters answers within 12 months at the latest," said the feisty politician, who was nominated by the party's board as the new SPD leader after Muenterfering stepped down in the aftermath of the poll defeat. The Dresden conference was called to confirm the choice.

"Social Democrats want to improve lives, not adapt to the prevailing conditions," he said.

Many other delegates also urged the party to offer a return to the days of more generous social welfare.

Left to the fore

The SPD has been largely controlled by its conservative wing over the last decade. The resurgent left wing is using the party congress to vent its frustration and retake center stage.

Many of the delegates criticized Muentefering and the SPD leadership for the debacle. They attacked some of the decisions of the past government – in which the Social Democrats ruled in a so-called “grand coalition” with the conservative CDU – including the raising of the retirement age to 67, welfare reform and the deployment of soldiers in Afghanistan.

Admission of blunders

Earlier, in his farewell speech, ousted party chairman Franz Muentefering acknowledged that the Social Democrats have only themselves to blame for the rout in the general election.

"The dimension of the defeat is terrifying," he said, admitting that many voters saw the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as "yesterday's party."

"The defeat is our own fault. But it was also because, at the moment, things in the world are moving in a different direction," Muenterfering hastened to add. "We simply did not succeed in getting our message across."

However, the 69-year-old leader counseled fellow Social Democrats not to give up. "As bad as the defeat was, we shouldn't succumb to petty infighting and defeatism," he said.

The party's grassroots membership has shrunk to 510,000, down by 400,000 compared to 1990.

While acknowledging that the SPD had diminished in size, Muenterfering also had words of encouragement for the Social Democrats. He said the party may have "become smaller, but the ideas of social democracy have not."

"We are able to fight, we're willing to fight and we'll be back," he declared.

rb/Reuters/dpa

Editor: Susan Houlton