Saturday 13 October 2012

Peer Steinbrück: A Profile


The next Chancellor of Germany?

Peer Steinbrück first came to national prominence in 2002, as Prime Minister in the (once) solidly Social Democratic North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) and later as a minister Angela Merkel’s Grand Coalition – Germany’s finance minister as the financial world lurched into its current state of perpetual crisis. Steinbrück is a sometime bellicose man who often speaks his mind, even if it gets him into trouble.

His story started in Hamburg in 1947, the great-great nephew of one of Deutsche Bank’s co-founders. Despite this heritage, few who knew him in his early years would have expected him to be a serious contender for the most powerful office in Germany: he was a spectacularly poor performer at school. On no less than two occasions, he was forced to repeat a year due to poor grades.
He went on to study economics in Kiel, making up for his poor school performance by graduating in just 4 years (German degrees took an age – until recently, it was not unusual for undergraduates to study all the way into their thirties).

28 years later, with a successful career spread across the civil service, the SPD and the cabinet of two German states behind him, he became Prime Minister of North Rhine Westphalia, selected by his party after his predecessor moved onto bigger things.

Steinbrück’s first electoral test could have gone better...

Having closely aligned himself with Gerhard Schroder on the right of the party, he led the SPD in NRW to a bitter defeat – the loss of a social democrat heartland even brought down the federal government. This electoral rout, however, brought Steinbrück firmly onto the national stage: Angela Merkel appointed him as Finance Minister in her CDU/CSU/SPD grand coalition government.

Then the crisis started.

While Germany itself steered clear of much of the economic chaos that beset the rest of the developed world, Steinbrück managed to make an enemy of the normally neutral Swiss. His attacks on banking secrecy and accusations that Switzerland is a tax haven led to a minor diplomatic incident: the German ambassador was summoned to explain Steinbrück’s statements. Closer to home, his comparison of the choice to either remain in opposition to the CDU or share power with left-wing Die Linke in a regional election to ‘Cholera or Plague’ also raised eyebrows within his own party.

He could be considered somewhat accident-prone.

Steinbrück, like the rest of the SPD moved into opposition after the 2009 elections removed Merkel’s reliance on the SPD to govern. He kept up his profile and attacks on big banks – and, once his two main competitors had bowed out, became the SPD’s candidate for chancellor.
Despite having seemingly placated the left wing of his party, his campaign has hardly gotten off on the right foot. Revelations relating to his extra-curricular activities – after dinner speeches for estimated 5 figure sums – will do him no favours in the SPD heartlands.
Despite the missteps, the SPD’s poll numbers have risen to a 6-year high following his coronation as candidate. Time will tell if the German people view this bellicose but passionate man as a real alternative to Merkel’s clam, collected but staid style: there is, after all, a year to go before the next federal elections.

Merkel’s personal numbers are good – but the CDU/CSU is increasingly unloved. If the SPD gains at the expense of the CDU, it will likely be in spite of their leaders.

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