Real Loser from the Coalition Talks

When the smoke cleared this week in Germany with the coalition between the CDU-CSU and SPD parties....there was only one four-star loser in the group.  Oh, I admit....Merkel and Schulz both took serious hits and aren't of the same statue that they were a year ago.  But the real loser was Sigmar Gabriel, former vice-chancellor, former-head of the SPD Party, and now ex-foreign minister of Germany.

Around 1999....Gabriel stepped up into the big scene there in Lower Saxony and became the Premier President of the German state.  By 2004....he was attracting more attention and got promoted to Berlin, and in 2005....he ended as the Minister in charge of Environmental Affairs for Germany. In the last five years, he moved up to head the SPD Party and was thought to be the chief person in 2016 who would run against Merkel in the September 2017 election.

Then the 'big' leadership sat down in the midst of the summer period of 2016, and saw some opportunity to bring Schulz back from the EU, and he was a better candidate.  They shuffled Schulz in front of the cameras of ARD and ZDF throughout the summer and fall....getting peopled used to the guy, and then kinda told Gabriel in a nice way.....he was stepping down as vice-chancellor, and taking the job of foreign minister.

At that point, he should have realized what the leadership of the party was preparing. 

This past week....the party announced the heads for the cabinet positions, Gabriel is totally out.  They also laid out the leadership functions within the party, and Gabriel has no real function other than being a back-bench guy at the Bundestag, and collecting a paycheck.

Yesterday, Gabriel did an interview and kinda hinted that he's peeved.  In a matter of one decade, he rose to the top, and now in twelve months....he's been dumped.

Deserving?  Well, here's the thing.  Over the past decade.....the SPD Party has been stagnant.  No growth, no real issues, no real focus.  As head of the party.....he was going nowhere.

The odd factor?  He was the figurehead for most working-class SPD voters, and they felt he was the only one within the party who spoke to their concerns.  In some ways, the Party is moving forward and away from the working-class voters, and hoping to find new voters to their cause. 

Gabriel in three years? I think he'll retire and just go and write books.  Most folks will have forgotten him by the next election.