As the saying goes, "people go tea cold". In the last few days of the post, German Chancellor Angela Merkel still received high praise and blessings from the leaders of China and Russia, so that the heart of the "European Iron Lady" was always not so desolate. But this cannot stop the historical process of Germany's "change of dynasty".
Before Merkel could hand over the keys to the chancellor's office, her old friend and old rival, the German Social Democrats, an old friend of Merkel's Union party, hastily declared the winner. On 15 October 2021, the German Federal Election Commission announced the official results of the bundestag elections held last month, with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) winning 25.7% of the vote, making it the largest party in the Bundestag. The Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Democratic Party issued a statement on the same day, announcing that they had reached a preliminary consensus on the joint formation of the cabinet. Since the party color of the SPD is red, the party color of the Green Party is green, and the party color of the LDP is yellow, the joint formation of the three parties is called the "traffic light" combination.
Some people on the Internet call the SPD "an old friend of the Chinese people" and that the SPD's rise to power will have a profound impact on Sino-German relations. When the SpDD came to power, some people say that this is not only a signal that Germany has turned to the left, but also a manifestation of Europe's turn to the left in a few days. Today, Xiaobian will take you to understand the political orientation behind this century-old German political party.
【I】
A century-old party, the "eldest son" of Marxism
As the founder of Marxism, Marx was originally German, so germans were naturally the first to come into contact with Marxism. On this basis, the German Social Democratic Party was born, which was founded in 1863 (the second year of the Qing Dynasty). It has a history of 158 years. It is worth mentioning that the German Social Democratic Party joined the Second International in 1889. In this way, the German Social Democratic Party is still the "brother" of our Communist Party of China.
Of course, even the Germans who followed Marxism did not fully identify with Marxism, and "revisionism" was born. In 1899, the German Socialist Democrat theoretician Bernstein systematically revised Marxism advocating proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat in his book The Premise of Socialism and the Tasks of Social Democracy, and proposed reformed Social Democracy. It advocates a peaceful and gradual transition from capitalism to socialism, opposing violent revolution; advocating democracy in general and opposing the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Moderate political ideas allowed the SPD to grow rapidly, and as early as 1912 (the first year of the Republic of China), it won 110 seats in 397 seats in the Second Reich of Germany, becoming the largest party in the Reichstag.
The SpDD is a heroic party, and two prominent martyrs of the German Revolution, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, are members of the SPD. When I was touring Berlin, the tour guide pointed to the balcony of a building and said that it was the place where Karl Liebknecht declared Germany a "free socialist republic".
【II】
The social and democratic forces of Europe have grown by leaps and bounds
Europe, which is originally a small region, is divided into so many countries, and countries and countries are often relatives, so it is very fast for a certain trend of thought to spread here.
The rapid development of the German Social Democratic Party led to the development of "social democracy" in Europe. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, European countries established social democratic parties. In addition to Germany, there were the Portuguese Socialist Party (founded in 1875), the Spanish Socialist Party (founded in 1879), the Austrian Socialist Party (founded in 1889), the Swedish Social Democratic Party (founded in 1889), the Italian Socialist Party (founded in 1891), the British Labour Party (founded in 1900), and the French Socialist Party (founded in 1905).
The term "social democracy" first appeared during the European Revolution of 1848. In the early years of the social democratic party (1860s-90s), the concept of social democracy was initially vague and was often used as a synonym for socialism with the spread of Marxism. To put it bluntly, these parties were actually born out of Marxism, so it is not surprising that these parties joined the Second International.
However, with the outbreak of the First World War, the Second International disintegrated as the overwhelming majority of the social-democratic parties supported the war policy of their own bourgeois government. It is no exaggeration to say that the current separation of the European social democratic parties from the Second International has completely created a gap between social democracy and Marxism and ruined the possibility of Europe moving towards socialism.
However, European social democracy has gained a foothold in Europe, especially after the Second World War, these parties have made great progress through many programmatic, policy and organizational adjustments, and have become important political forces on the European stage.
【III】
Social democracy is not socialism
As we said earlier, the social democracy pursued by some social democratic parties in Europe, including the United States and Africa, is itself born out of Marxism. At the beginning of the establishment of these parties, they also pursued some socialist policies. But with constant "revisions," they have come to be very different from the socialism we espouse.
In the period between the two world wars, in order to highlight the "democratic" nature of their claims and their opposition to the Bolshevism of the Third International, the Social Democratic parties used more "democratic socialism" to express their ideological theories. Note that during the two world wars, "Social Democracy", out of its own interests, chose to cooperate with the bourgeoisie and sided with the Bolsheviks.
In 1959, the West German Social Democratic Party formulated the Gothsburg Program, which completely abandoned the Marxist content of public ownership and other Marxist contents in the original program and advocated a social market economy instead. Beginning in the 1990s, social democratic parties were further "liberalized" with the "Third Way" proposed by Blair to adapt to the increasingly fierce international competition in the process of globalization.
【IV】
Social Democracy Wants to Control Europe?
As mentioned above, social democracy is a political force to be reckoned with in Europe, and they are interconnected and "visit each other", almost forming a situation in which one prospers and the other loses.
No, after the SPD won the election, partners of social democratic parties from other European countries congratulated the SPD on its victory. Frans Timmermans, the European Commission's executive vice-president for green affairs and former Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, tweeted shortly after the preliminary results of the German elections were announced: "Congratulations on the triumph of strong social democracy." ”
David Sassoli, president of the European Parliament from Italy's Social Democratic Party, said: "After this historic crisis, there is no time to waste. Europe needs Berlin to be a strong and reliable partner in order to continue our joint work towards social and green recovery. ”
Don't you say that the size of this society of the European Social Democratic Party is getting bigger and bigger. The EU currently has 6 Governments governed by Social Democratic parties (Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Malta), 3 coalition Governments with Social Democratic parties (Germany, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg), and one in which the Social Democratic Parties Party participates in the broadest coalition of political parties (Belgium).
Europe is the most developed region of social democratic parties. The political leaders of Germany, France and Britain, such as Brandt, Mitterrand, Hollande, and Blair, who are familiar to us, are all from the "SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC" camps of their respective countries.
At present, the European Socialist Party (PES), a political party group in the European Parliament, an important EU institution, has 217 seats, making it the second largest political party group in the European Parliament. The Party of European Socialists is a pan-European coalition of political parties whose members include the social democratic parties of the European Union (The German Social Democratic Party, the French Socialist Party, the Italian Left Democratic Party, the Spanish Workers' Socialist Party, etc., the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, etc.), the British Labour Party and the Norwegian Labour Party.
What is even more amazing is that there are more than 100 social democratic parties in the world, and they also have a headquarters organization, that is, the Socialist International (SI) founded in 1951, headquartered in London, which is the largest surviving worldwide political party organization.
So, will the rise to power of the SPD lead Germany to the left? Will Germany, which is the dominant force in the EU, lead the little brothers in the EU to the left through this "change"? How will Sino-German and China-EU relations develop in the future? Leave your insights in the comments section.
The author of this article is a special international expert of the Wall Breaking Investigation Bureau: Dr. Sun Lizhou
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