Martin Schulz

2017 federal election

On 24 January 2017, Schulz became the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor in that year's Federal election. In March he was unanimously chosen as official head of the party, the first time in post-war Germany a leader of the SPD received no dissenting vote. Following the announcement of his nomination, his party gained an average of ten percentage points in public opinion polls. For a short period of time the SPD was close to the Union parties of Chancellor Merkel, during this time political observers regarded it possible that Schulz could unseat Merkel in the federal election on 24 September 2017. Polls also showed Schulz leading Merkel if Germans could elect their chancellor directly.

With unemployment hitting new lows each month during the campaign, Schulz later struggled to gain traction with a message focusing on the ills of inequality in Germany. Shortly before the election, he refocused his campaign on the risk of a rekindled European migrant crisis. In July 2017, illness forced Schulz's campaign manager and friend Markus Engels to step down.

In the federal elections on 24 September 2017, the Social Democrats slumped to 20.5 percent, a new postwar low.

Aftermath of the 2017 federal election

Within an hour of the first exit poll, Schulz confirmed statements by other senior party figures that the SPD would not renew its Grand coalition with the CDU under Angela Merkel but head into opposition. Schulz explicitly refused to serve in a Merkel government.

However, after the attempt to form a "Jamaica coalition" between CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens failed in November 2017 and President Steinmeier asked him to reconsider, Schulz reversed his position and began coalition talks with the CDU/CSU parties.

In February 2018, these coalition talks concluded successfully and Schulz announced he would succeed incumbent foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel as foreign minister. After heavy public and internal criticism, Schulz stepped down as SPD Leader on 13 February 2018 and proposed Andrea Nahles as his replacement; and shortly thereafter he also gave up his attempt to become foreign minister. The attempt to install Nahles as acting party leader faced severe criticism from several regional party associations as well as experts in constitutional law. The party executive nominated Nahles as the new leader, with Olaf Scholz, as the longest-serving deputy, taking over as acting party leader until the party conference on 22 April 2018.

In December 2020, Schulz announced that he would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term. At the same time, he was elected to chair the Friedrich Ebert Foundation - a position he occupies to this day.

Political positions

European integration

Schulz is widely considered an ardent EU supporter. He has hailed European unification as being civilization's greatest achievement over the past century. In 2014, however, he argued it was also essential that responsibility was delegated away from Brussels and down to national, regional and local authorities, allowing the EU to focus on the big issues. As a result of Schulz's pro-Europeanism, both supporters and detractors have linked him with the slogan "MEGA" – "Make Europe Great Again" – as a parody of US president Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again".

Schulz is committed to strengthening Europe and the European institutions. In 2016, he presented a ten-point plan for a reform of the EU with Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. It calls for a "streamlining" of European structures and the establishment of a strong European government under the control of the European Parliament.

Schulz has often emphasised that the European Union is the best way to banish the "demons of the twentieth century", such as racism, xenophobia and antisemitism.

After the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a membership referendum, Schulz warned in mid-2016: "If we break the instruments with which we banish the demons, we will set them free again." He is one of the 27 initiators of the Charter of Digital Fundamental Rights published in November 2016 Of the European Union.

In December 2017, Schulz called for a new constitutional treaty for a "United States of Europe". He proposed that this constitution should be written by "a convention that includes civil society and the people" and that any state that declined to accept this proposed constitution should have to leave the bloc. His proposal is "likely to be met with some resistance from Merkel and other EU leaders".

Security policy

In front of the European Council on 19 December 2013, Schulz took responsibility for the initiation of the Cox-Kwaśniewski mission to Ukraine. In the same speech, he noted that Europe was still militarily dependent on the US, and that in many cases Europe would be quite incapable of carrying out a military operation without the support of the US.

Schulz was quoted in a newspaper report of his speech as having said: "If we wish to defend our values and interests, if we wish to maintain the security of our citizens, then a majority of MEPs consider that we need a headquarters for civil and military missions in Brussels and deployable troops," The External Action Service of HRUFASP Catherine Ashton had prepared a proposal, which was supported by France, Spain, Italy, Poland and Germany who together have QMV majority, to create a European Air Force composed of surveillance drones, heavy transport airplanes, and air-to-air refuelling planes. The debate was joined with a view presented by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who maintained that "Nato will remain the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security." Rasmussen's view prevailed on the Council at this time because QMV does not take effect in decisions of the European Council until 1 November 2014.

Economy

Schulz believes that dignified work is a value in itself. For that reason, he says, he is not a proponent of the concept of unconditional basic income. However, Schulz is much in favour of decent wage agreements, secure and lasting jobs, employee participation in decision-making and the examination of the social justification for claims and payments.

Foreign affairs

In an effort to improve relations between Europe and Cuba, Schulz led a European Parliament delegation to Havana for talks with Carlos Lage Dávila on lifting EU sanction against the countries in 2008.

In 2014, Schulz delivered a speech to the Israeli Knesset, in which he criticised Israel for denying Palestinians a fair share of water resources in the occupied West Bank. The speech sparked a walk-out by several lawmakers from the Jewish Home party, and drew a public rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2015, amid the Russo-Ukrainian War, Schulz suspended a committee made up of Russian and EU lawmakers that meets several times a year to improve ties. When Russia barred entry to two politicians from the EU who had planned to attend the funeral in 2015 of murdered opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, Schulz criticised the barring as "a high affront to EU–Russia relations and the work of democratic institutions".

In 2016, Schulz stated that Donald Trump is a problem "for the whole world," and linked the Trump phenomenon to far-right populism in Europe. He called Trump an "irresponsible man" who "boasts about not having a clue".

Incident with Godfrey Bloom

On 24 November 2010 the British MEP Godfrey Bloom caused a row in the European Parliament when he interrupted a speech by Martin Schulz, heckling him with the Nazi propaganda slogan Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer ('one people, one empire, one leader') and accusing him of being an 'undemocratic fascist'. Bloom later stated that he was referring to the fact that the indoctrination of the German people under the Nazi regime has long-lasting effects; "some Germans still find it difficult to accept diversity in Europe and differences of opinion". In the debate on the future of the Euro Stability Pact Schulz had criticised the role played by the United Kingdom, which was involved in the discussions despite not being a member of the eurozone, and said that some eurosceptics would take pleasure in the collapse of the European Union. Following the incident, the president of Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, excluded Bloom from the Chamber. The Dutch MEP Barry Madlener, from the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV – Freedom Party), then protested against that decision, on the grounds that Schulz himself had recently described the PVV MEP Daniël van der Stoep as a fascist, but had not been excluded from the Chamber.

Campaign-related issues

Schulz received criticism after having transformed the Twitter account that his staff had built up for his European Parliament presidency into his own personal account in order to use it as part of his candidature to the EU Commission.

During his time as President of the European Parliament, Schulz removed a paragraph critical of his stewardship in a key committee report set for debate on 2 April 2014, thereby attracting a lot of negative attention. As a consequence, a large majority of the European Parliament voted on 4 April 2014 to invite Schulz to resign so that he would be able to campaign for the European elections.

Lastly, Schulz was criticized about the tax-free daily allowance of €304 the president of the Parliament received, until 18 April 2014, which he received while he was campaigning to become president of the commission. This was paid for 365 days a year, in addition to his salary of 200 thousand euros per year. A member of parliament receives this daily allowance only for attending.

Allegation of favoring close employees

In April 2017, the European Parliament, as part of its decision to discharge the financial year 2015, criticized two personnel matters where Schulz had been responsible for as President of Parliament. An employee of the parliament received an expatriation allowance of around 20,000 euros, even though his center of life had previously been in Berlin. The employee was a confidant of Schulz and later worked for the SPD as its campaign manager. Schulz was also accused of signing irregular promotions of close associates in a presidential decree that would have secured them financially advantageous posts beyond his departure. Schulz described the complaint as an election maneuver by "anti-Europeans, conservatives and Greens" and referred a decision of the European Anti-Fraud Office not to initiate an official investigation.

Foreign minister debate

On the day of the 2017 Federal Election, Schulz said he would under no circumstances become a minister of a government led by Angela Merkel or negotiate to form a Grand Coalition. After the SPD and Union parties finished their coalition talks on 6 February 2018, he made his intentions clear that he wanted to be foreign minister in the next government. This was met by heavy criticism from the party base, as Schulz was abandoning his word for a second time—the first being his vow not to enter coalition talks with Angela Merkel. The harshest criticism came from the incumbent foreign minister and his predecessor as SPD leader, Sigmar Gabriel. He accused Schulz and the Party leadership of not showing him the respect he deserves and being rude towards him. This public attack, coupled with internal pressure from the party leadership, led Schulz to retract prior statements and on 9 February 2018 he released a statement saying he would not enter into the new government; he resigned as leader of the SPD effective 13 February 2018.