Political Parties Meet to Chart Their Courses

Social Democrats (SPD)

The path to reform will be high on the agenda at the two-day meeting beginning Monday of the Social Democratic leadership in the city of Wiesbaden. Plans on reform in the areas of economics, education, family and social policy are set to be discussed.

In the spotlight will be the so-called “Wiesbaden Declaration” , a proposed plan for reform put together by the German economics minister, Wolfgang Clement and Hans Eichel, the finance minister (photo). The declaration, according to Clement, amounts to an “offensive” to help the nation’s struggling small and medium-sized businesses through tax relief.

It is hoped that such talk of reform, such as the SPD's declaration of “renewing the social market economy”, will deflect some of the heavy criticism the current government, and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in particular, has been under in recent weeks. Business leaders and the media have accused them of having lost their bearings and lacking the political will to push through reforms that could be painful in the short term.

Discussion of the future of Germany’s struggling health system will also be on the docket, with Health Minister Ulla Schmidt (photo) scheduled to present the basics of her plan to keep a system afloat that is becoming unaffordable in its current form.

Christian Social Union (CSU)

Reform is to play large in the annual winter meeting of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian sister party to the Christian Democrats (CDU). The CSU gathers for its annual winter meeting starting on Tuesday in Wildbad Kreuth, one hour outside of Munich.

CSU party head and former candidate for chancellor Edmund Stoiber (photo) has announced the focus of the three-day get-together will be on reforming Germany’s economic and tax policy, supporting any United Nations position on Iraq and reiterating the conservative party’s clear opposition to the current government’s proposed immigration policy.

Stoiber is expected put forward a five-point plan for economic reform which includes lowering tax and social security paycheck deductions to below 40 percent by 2006. The Bavarians accuse the Schröder government of scaring off investors and hindering growth with an inconsistent tax plan.

“The economy has to be able to depend on a stable policy of tax relief in making its investment decisions,” Stoiber said in an interview.

The CSU announced its plans on taking a hard line concerning immigration policy. A Schröder-backed immigration law, Germany’s first, squeaked by the upper house of parliament in in March. But in December, the nation’s highest court overturned the law, siding with conservative-led states who argued the bill did not pass through the parliament legally.

Chancellor Schröder said he would try to push the law through again in January, but the CSU warned he was in for a fight.

“The government is kidding itself if it thinks it’s going to win us over with an unchanged version of the law,” the CSU’s Peter Ramsauser told German radio.

Free Democrats (FDP)

The Free Democrats are coming together in Stuttgart for their traditional “Three Kings” meeting with hopes that the only way onward from here is upwards. After a scandal involving charges of anti-Semitism against former FDP deputy head Jürgen Möllenmann and the party’s disastrous showing in the September general elections, the FDP has been looking for ways to rejuvenate its image and program.

The current deputy leader, Walter Döring, called on the party to set itself on a clear course for the future and rally behind beleaguered party chief Guido Westerwelle, who has come under fire for his handling of the Möllemann affair and for this past summer’s election campaign. In trying to attract voters, especially younger ones, Westerwelle was accused of taking the emphasis off policy and putting it on events and stunts created for the media, such as parachute jumps and the blue and yellow campaign bus christened the "Guidomobile".

The message in Stuttgart this week seems to be “let’s get serious” and presses for a return to the basics.

“A market economy, responsibility, the rule of law and freedom are the cornerstones of our liberal party,” Döring said in a recent speech.