If Bärbel Bas had stayed in Leipzig until the end of the SPD debate camp, she would probably have left even more disillusioned. Because the young district boss of the Saxon “Industrial Union for Mining, Chemicals and Energy”, Philipp Zirzow, came up with alarming survey results among his people.

30 percent of chemical union members would vote for AfD

“These are our union members with good wages and yet 30 percent said in an internal survey that they would vote for the AfD,” says Zirzow. All other parties were at 10 percent, including his own SPD.

Zirzow warned on the podium that people had long since lost trust and that we had to be honest: “The energy transition doesn’t work like that.” None of the agreed “checkpoints” were adhered to: lines, storage, capacities for renewable electricity.

“And the fired coal miner doesn’t find it funny that gas is now being bought that is also harmful to the climate. The Democrats have to wake up and say openly: That doesn’t work.”

Zirzow wants Germany to still be governed democratically in 2040. But only a few of the 400 registered SPD comrades listen to him. The “Economy in Crisis” event was one of the worst attended, although it is actually the current core issue of social democracy.

However, when it came to the topics of promoting democracy, the AfD ban and correct language, the rooms were packed. These are obviously the issues close to the hearts of today’s members of the former Workers’ Party.

The party leader Bärbel Bas starts the day in the morning with a similar finding as the trade unionist – but with the result of 5.5 percent Baden-Württemberg: “It’s in all of our bones today,” she says. The fact that only five percent of employees in Baden-Württemberg voted for the SPD also hurts, she adds.

Federal chairwoman reacts with a promise of billions

A comrade from the Leipzig district association, who also sits on the city council, describes the catastrophic finances of the municipalities in the subsequent question and answer session. “We have to finance ourselves with loans. Otherwise the citizens will notice that democracy no longer works. Everyone knows what happens then.”

Bärbel Bas is now reacting to this statement with a promise of billions. A different financial distribution is needed and: If laws cost municipalities money, “then we have to make the money available to them.” In other words: Additional billions in spending through social laws or reduced revenue through tax relief would in future be transferred by the federal government directly to the accounts of the municipalities.

“Of course we are afraid of disappearing”

Anett Konzack-Klingner and her comrade Thomas Glaser from the Leipzig district association can hardly believe this. “It was a promise and I’m curious to see how it will be kept,” says Anett Konzack-Klingner. The debt level in her district will soon amount to 90 million euros. “Explain to the citizens that we now have to cancel all voluntary services,” says Glaser.

When asked by FOCUS online whether they were afraid of the disappearance of the SPD, both answered emphatically in the affirmative. “Of course we are afraid of disappearing. The number of members has halved and we are becoming fewer and fewer. I see blue for the next state elections in Saxony. I suspect we will not make it into the state parliament,” said Glaser.

FOCUS online also asked Bärbel Bas whether she shared the fear of disappearing. She answers confidently: “I’m not afraid of disappearing because the issues that are on the street are still social democratic issues from people who are not doing so well.”

The frustration runs deep among the comrades

But the frustration runs deep for many. Jürgen Schmidt from the Meißen sub-district describes the problem that many here share: “The difficulty is that the two party leaders are in the government and therefore find it difficult to differentiate themselves.” What he means is what he sees as the unfair abolition of citizens’ money, which happened primarily for the sake of the Union.

Rosemarie Schulze has been in the party for 25 years and is active in the “60 Plus” group. She wants someone with the charisma of Gregor Gysi to lead the party. Bärbel Bas, she says, is a “fighter by nature, but much too calm a fighter by nature.” The SPD must again listen to “the masses.”

Sometimes frustration comes out in the open at this debate camp. In the event “Nobody understands them – how does the SPD learn the language of the majority again?” Many speakers demand that the two chairmen, Lars Klingbeil and Bärbel Bas, “just have to hit one more often.”

The SPD’s communications chief makes an explosive admission

Someone shouts from behind: “Just dare to do more bullshit!” and many laugh. You are alluding to Bas’s statement, the Chancellor Merz’ Statement that the welfare state can no longer be financed “Bullshit” had designated.

For Lisa Treiling, head of communications at the SPD party executive, the bullshit episode brings back bad memories. She comes up with a very open-hearted and explosive admission.

She asked herself for a long time: “Where are the people who stand behind us?” Also in the party. And adds: “As a party, we are not good at standing together at the crucial moment.”

In this respect, the calls for more and louder cross-fire within the coalition make no sense to her: “If we always do things differently, then the coalition won’t last.”

At the end, Lisa Treiling makes a plea that once again underlines the party’s deep crisis, because such a plea would not be necessary in normal times: “We believe in the future of this party and have to broadcast that.”