After long years of Conservative rule, Labour and the SPD both managed to win the last parliamentary elections held in our two countries. The House of Commons and the German Bundestag now contain a high proportion of young social democrat parliamentarians, many of whom are keen to initiate a long-term dialogue designed to focus our attention on social and European reforms.
European policy and social policy are fields that represent a particular challenge to the left. In Germany and Great Britain they are the subject of intense debate and controversy. They are a litmus test for our ability to take on the responsibility of government over the long term.
In both countries reform of the welfare state is high on the agenda. Both the SPD and Labour have inherited difficult legacies. A growing lack of social solidarity, severe disparities in terms of justice and equity and the drifting apart of rich and poor threatened to turn Peter Glotz’ thesis of a two-thirds society into harsh reality.
It is our task to undertake a radical reform of welfare systems and adapt them to the challenges of a changed and globalized world of living and working. There is also a need to establish a new conformity in relation to welfare and the structure of society. Shaping and organizing the welfare state will remain for a long time a key national task.
What are our experiences? As Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Government presents its mid-term review and the British Government prepares for the closing stages of its first period of office, we can agree that we have implemented social democratic policies in many areas and thus secured a lasting improvement in the living conditions of many people. Germany and Great Britain today are in better shape than during the Thatcher, Major and Kohl terms of office.
On the other side of the coin, we have all stood at least once on the edge of the political abyss. While the Social Democrats in Germany endured their ‘annus horribilis’ in their first year of office, suffering a series of disasters, hitches and bad luck, Tony Blair’s talent as a great communicator and evangelist seems to have faded slightly in recent times. The crisis brought about by high oil prices in Britain and Germany was, I am sure, just the tip of the iceberg! The honeymoon is over. Sooner for us and later, it seems, for our British colleagues.
What lessons should we draw from our ups and downs in the opinion polls? Constantly keeping an eye out for issues that will attract public sympathy must never be allowed to replace the often painstaking process of working to persuade and convince. The success of our finance and budgetary policy, for example, demonstrates that it pays to back the convictions enshrined in one’s programme, even against massive resistance on the part of numerous different pressure groups. And even if such measures are unpopular in the short term.
European policy in particular shows how important it is for the progressive left to talk openly about common ground and equally about differences. Europe stands at a decisive crossroads. The final implementation of the progress we have sought so long in the areas of EU expansion and democratic legitimacy poses enormous problems for Europe since member states must finally nail their colors to the mast. We in Europe have now become so closely intertwined that formulaic compromises and short-term negotiating successes no longer take us anywhere.
Thus the left would do well to reflect on its common European roots. For all the complex and difficult reforms that stand before us, the top priority in a globalized world must be to ensure the operability and future viability of democratic and social policy. On this the Germans and British should agree. For the younger generation Europe has long been a cultural melting pot. It’s something the world of politics could learn from, too.