The Rise and Fall of Leftist Populism in Germany

After Germany’s Martin Schulz stepped down as president of the European Parliament in late 2016, he embarked on a nationwide tour of his home country. His aim, he said, was to better understand the concerns of ordinary Germans. In speeches before packed union halls, beer tents, and farmers markets, Schulz, a prominent member of the troubled Social Democratic Party (SPD), touted the classic values of social democracy—fairness and dignity. Such values, in his mind, translated into things like free education, a fairer unemployment-insurance system, and a progressive tax code.

While it was at first whether Schulz sought to challenge Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel in this month’s elections, his fact-finding mission swiftly morphed into a frenetic campaign tour. Everywhere he went, he billed himself as the candidate of the little person. , he said. “How can we mobilize billions to rescue banks, but the plaster in our children’s schools is crumbling from the wall? This doesn’t happen in a fair country!” he said in Berlin. Germans hadn’t heard this kind of rhetoric from the SPD in decades, much less from Schulz: He had, after all, made his name in Brussels