Where Now for European Social Democracy? - Policy Network

SIGMAR GABRIEL 27exciting discussions and reasonably sure-footed decisions emerge.The second main, important difference in a new policy concept forGerman (and international) social democracy is that the classicalstrategy of re-allocating social wealth no longer reaches out enough toremove the social barriers that exist in today’s world.On the contrary, the structures and systems of social securitybuilt on this strategy have in themselves become an obstacle to anempowering development for many people in our society. On the onehand we have been living for decades by mortgaging the future,because the political class’ strategy of conflict avoidance – includingsocial democrats – has increasingly financed its social programmesthrough borrowing. A completely different redistribution has arisen,namely for the benefit of those who are living at the expense of futuregenerations.Today, the result of this already is that we are confined to copingwith the past and we are not free to act for the future. In Germany,we spend each year €114 billion on debt-servicing and pensions andonly €25 billion on investment. For research and technology, only€12 billion are allotted in the federal budget. A society that spendsten times more on managing the past than it does for the future isquickly a thing of the past.On the other hand, the combination of a hedonistic policy on thefamily and the lack of childcare options has led all the formulas of oursocial security system to fall apart. Because we would like to retainour traditional form of social security, we have been confronted foryears now with rising contributions and decreasing benefits. Thissimultaneous destruction of the freedom of the state to develop andthe margin for decision making of the individual is ultimately thegreatest danger for Germany’s social state model. The climax wasfound precisely under a political leadership that gladly gives theoutward appearance that it would like the exact opposite. TheCDU/CSU and the FDP with Helmut Kohl, Count Lambsdorff andtheir party supporters shunned reforming financial policy and thesocial systems just as they preached freedom instead of socialism.Financing German Unity on credit and at the expense of labourersand white-collar workers in the social security system will cling