Getting to know the SPD, the Left Party that Wins the German Elections

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Olaf Scholz, politicians from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the German general election last weekend. The SPD’s victory marked the rise of centre-to-left parties in several countries in Europe.

The SPD narrowly won with 25.7 percent of the votes from the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU), which only won 24.1 percent of the vote. CDU is the ruling party that has carried the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

Meanwhile, the other two parties, The Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) only received 14.8 percent and 11.5 percent of the vote.

According to DW, the SPD is the oldest party in Germany. The SPD also claims to be the oldest democratic party in the world. SPD was born when workers began to rebel against the businesses that employ them.

On 23 May 1863, Ferdinand Lassalle, son of a wealthy merchant, became the driving force behind the founding of the German Workers’ Association (ADAV) in Leipzig. ADAV is the forerunner of the German SPD.

During the German imperial rule of 1871-1918, the party quickly became a mass movement, with over 1 million members. In the election, he obtained a third of the country’s popular vote.

When Germany’s last imperial chancellor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, abdicated on November 9, 1918, both branches of the social democratic movement simultaneously called for the creation of a new republic.

From the Berlin Reichstag parliament, the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a fairly democratic republic, while Karl Liebknecht called for socialist-communist politics.

However, the Weimar Republic, which was founded and supported by a moderate Social Democratic majority and represented the first phase of democracy on German soil, was politically unstable and could only run from 1918 to 1933.

After that, Germany faced an economic crisis. Hyperinflation and unemployment made democratic institutions no longer able to hinder the national socialists under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Hitler was known for his dictatorial and sadistic leadership.

Left SPD party after Adolf Hitler era in Germany, read on next page…