SPD | Lars Klingbeil: Napoleon with SPD party membership card

Judging the SPD harshly is actually forbidden by common sense, which dictates that one should not step on someone who is on the ground. And indeed, the state party conferences in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein have shown that the Social Democratic base does not simply swallow everything cooked up by the informal centers of power. Party leader Lars Klingbeil has recently encountered considerable backlash twice. His responses to all the critical questions, however, were not worth mentioning. He was as specific as "Of course we made mistakes" and announcing that he would "work through" the election disaster . What exactly does he want to work through, when, and with what consequences? Legitimate questions. But not ones that should be asked of a man whose political will to shape things goes so far as to present all ministries with the same austerity targets.

Nevertheless, one or two delegates may have returned home from Husum and Duisburg hoping that a profound election analysis and strategy debate were taking place in some broom closet in the Willy Brandt House. Klingbeil knew even before the meetings that they would be unpleasant. After he had secured power in the party in a coup-like manner after the federal election, this was already priced in. He also knew that the Young Socialists (Jusos) and the Social Democratic Women's Association in particular would not applaud the despicable manner in which he had given the green light to his co-chair, Saskia Esken, for firing squad. Above all, however, he knew that none of this would matter, because ultimately, even within the SPD, the base always grumbles and backs down.

Anyone with Klingbeil's instinct for power, which a Holstein delegate rightly compared to Napoleon, only has to do exactly what the SPD leader has done in recent days, and his power will be cemented for years to come. First, help as many loyal people as possible into cabinet positions. If they then owe their power to you, twofold dependency arises. And that lasts particularly well.

Secondly, bringing on board perhaps the only woman who can appease the left wing and at the same time silence those who suspect that the way Saskia Esken was dismissed also has something to do with male power tactics. Abracadabra, she becomes Minister of Labor and likely also co-chair.

All of this is almost shamefully transparent. Even sadder, however, is that it will work nonetheless. There are no state elections this year; and by the time the votes in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg take place next spring, not only the SPD base but also the rest of the electorate will have forgotten what Lars Klingbeil claimed while in power a year earlier. Anyone who effectively takes over the party with 16.4 percent can only win. You don't need to have had a single original thought in your life to know that. It's enough to master the techniques of power, which, not only in the SPD, are far more important than what's printed on election posters.