FOCUS online: Mr. Jung, you won the mayoral election in Fürth last Sunday with 72 percent in the first round – your comrades in Baden-Württemberg achieved a historically poor result with 5.5 percent. What were your feelings on election night?

Thomas Jung: Of course I was happy about my personal result. During the election campaign I often heard that I made Fürth more beautiful. But I was surprised that it was even more than 70 percent sufficient. However, I feared the worst for Baden-Württemberg. The result is truly dramatic.

Aren’t you worried that your party membership could have a negative impact on your result?

Young: I admit that the people of Fürth don’t vote for me because I’m in the SPD. But I don’t hide my party on the election posters, like Cem Özdemir did with the Greens in Baden-Württemberg. But there are actually candidates in the SPD who no longer dare to write the party on the poster – they believe that would harm them.

You have been mayor since 2002. Tell us your secret to success.

Young: People know me. You know that my policy has a few cornerstones that I will reliably implement.

What are these cornerstones?

Young: Every child in Fürth should get a daycare place. I have a business-friendly attitude and am open to investors. And: We have been consistently reducing debts for 16 years.

Business-friendly attitude and reduce debt? You don’t hear that very often in the SPD.

In Baden-Württemberg, 59 percent of voters said that the SPD cares more about recipients of citizens’ benefits than hard-working people. Only 37 percent say that the SPD is the party that is most concerned about social equality. Only 5 percent of workers voted for the SPD. How do you evaluate these numbers?

Young: This is a problem for us. In Fürth I won in every constituency, regardless of whether workers or entrepreneurs live there. This is simply because everyone has the feeling that I don’t just do politics for one group. Things are obviously different with the SPD in the federal government. The sanction-free introduction of the Citizen’s money was a serious mistake and drove people away from us who work hard. Only those who cannot work should be well supported.

Young: Some people don’t want to believe that either. But I would like to say something else about the polarized election campaign: Of course, the race was focused on the CDU against the Greens. But that’s no coincidence. A party is interesting if it has a chance of producing the head of government. We succeed less and less often. And when at some point we are no longer perceived that way, things get really dark.

What will happen to the SPD if it continues to cling to citizens’ money and other welfare state benefits?

Young: All we have to do is look abroad. In Denmark, for example, the Social Democrats have taken a tougher line on migration – and they are in power. In France, for example, the Social Democrats have persisted in their positions – and have almost disappeared. The SPD has a choice: it changes or it goes under.

The SPD wants to give itself a new basic program and thereby answer who it actually is. What is your answer to that?

Young: Very easy. The SPD is a party that enables hard-working people to have a good life. When I ride my bike through the city in the morning, I see bus drivers, saleswomen in bakeries, garbage collectors, craftsmen. I really just have to ask myself: Are they better off because of my policies?

Some would say your views are the CDU program.

Young: Then Helmut Schmidt, Gerhard Schröder and Franz Müntefering also made the CDU program. That’s the politics because of which I joined the SPD and that’s what I’m fighting for. I stand by my party, you don’t have to assume anything about me.

Do you think this course is capable of gaining a majority in the party?

Young: I had my party leader during the election campaign Lars Klingbeil and the Environment Minister Carsten Schneider as guests. Both agreed with my views. After all, these are two important people…

Nevertheless, the chairmen Bas and Klingbeil are also responsible for the coalition course that you criticize. Is this a lineup with which the SPD can become strong again?

Young: I am fundamentally skeptical about dual leadership. People need a strong personality that they can trust. If the SPD needs two politicians to lead the party, that doesn’t convey strength.

That doesn’t yet answer whether the two current party leaders are suitable.

Young: Lars Klingbeil has format.

You haven’t mentioned Bärbel Bas.

Young: She has initiated a good welfare state reform. That’s positive. But your criticism of employers is not a letter of recommendation.

The next election is just a week away, and there may be talk of the SPD’s demise again. What dynamics would emerge in the party if it were defeated?

Young: I have a good feeling for Rhineland-Palatinate, so I don’t want to speculate about details. But things could then become critical for the federal coalition. In a government, all partners must enjoy their work. Of course, if one party keeps losing, that’s not the case. This can’t work well in the long run.