Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) sees the SPD facing a question of direction following the election defeat in Rhineland-Palatinate. "It's not easy for the SPD. You can feel how torn it is over the question of whether it should look after its actual core electorate, the workers in our country, or whether it should compete with the Left Party and the Greens," Kretschmer told the German Press Agency. "Both will not work at the same time and will ultimately lead to decline."
He sees the result of the state election in Rhineland-Palatinate as a "shot across the bow of democracy". Kretschmer told dpa in Berlin: "We have a lot of people who are turning away, who are afraid, who no longer trust in the ability of our democracy, our consensus democracy, to find solutions." These people can only be won back if they are convinced by results. Talking alone does not help.
