Martin Schulz ‘angry’ over SPD election FLOP amid doubts over ex-EU chief’s leadership
MARTIN Schulz has confessed to feeling “annoyed” by his party’s election results which have left Angela Merkel’s party on course for victory in September as it emerged there are doubts over the ex-European Parliament president’s leadership.
The SPD have voiced concern about Martin Schulz's leadership
Mr Schulz, the leader of Germany’s Social Democrat Party (SPD), unexpectedly performed badly in the Schleswig-Holstein German state election on Sunday.
The former EU chief, who was nominated as the SPD’s candidate in January, said: “We all expected a better result.”
He went on to say the poor showing “gets under the skin and makes us sad”.
His party needed to perform well in order to stand a chance of taking the chancellorship from Angela Merkel.
Martin Schulz
When he took over in January, he gave his party a poll boost with many believing he would be the best person to challenge Mrs Merkel.
After the defeat, he said: “At such times, when one has to accept a loss, a basic principle applies for the SPD perhaps more than other parties: the principle of solidarity with one another.”
Schulz was elected the leader of the SPD in January
Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) candidate won 33 per cent of the votes in the region, compared with the SPD’s 26.2 per cent.
The CDU candidate Daniel Gunther led his party to victory with local issues like education, traffic and security dominating the race.
Senior CDU politician Jens Spahn said: "The Schulz locomotive has gone from 100 to 0 in only two state elections."
Schulz is the ex-European Parliament president
The news outlet in Germany, Focus, said: “The SPD is coming to terms with the fact that the Schulz effect does not exist.
“Martin Schulz is not the driving force that will lead the SPD to victory.
“This is the bitter realisation after the second election defeat since the nomination of the 61-year-old as the chancellor candidate.
Germany's SPD endorses Merkel opponent Schulz as leader
“The voters can not be fooled.”
Although the magazine says that the SPD has doubts over Mr Schulz, they also say that they do not know who else would be leader.
The CDU has benefitted from carrying out policy ground work on issues such as education, security and infrastructure.