Betraying its ideals

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has betrayed its ideals, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. This is seen for example in its handling of the Caucasus crisis and the visit of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans: "If you take a sober look at the SPD today, you see anything but a cosmopolitan party. What you do see is an autistic obsession with personalities ... and systems of reference that are only understandable to insiders, all of which refer to our welfare state. ... Appeals not to offend the sensibilities of wounded party leaders are slowly becoming the hallmark of a party that was founded to protect the poor. ... It is hard to imagine that social democratic parties once wooed dissidents, convicts and opposition figures. ... A return to the tradition of cabinet diplomacy is never amiss for reasons of state, but for a mainstream party it is not enough."

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