At the end of this summer, among all the political posters and billboards on both sides of the streets of German cities and towns, the ones that are most likely to stop commuters are those bathed in traffic lights.
These posters use bright color schemes that are usually unique to the Marxist-Leninist parties on the left edge of Germany. They are surprising in more respects: in the center of the photo sits a bald man in suit and leather shoes, who does not look like a mob of left-wing mobs-more than regional architecture. The middle-level manager of the association reviews your loan application and promises you a complete change.
The bureaucracy’s actions on the roadblocks seemed to have worked: three weeks before the German opinion poll on September 26, the gray man in a suit and Social Democrat Olaf Scholz unexpectedly Push yourself to pole position Succeeding the outgoing prime minister Angela Merkel.
Serving as the deputy prime minister of the German coalition government for the past four years, he is currently doing a better job persuading the public that he can be a Merkel continuum candidate than her own party’s contender Amin Rachette.
An opinion poll published last week showed that Schultz’s center-left Social Democratic Party was 3-5 percentage points ahead of Raschelt’s Christian Democratic League. This is the oldest surviving party in Germany. Gerhard Schröder) won the federal election for the last time under his leadership.
For most of the past ten years, the Social Democratic Party looked like the end of a powerful crossbow, exhausted its energy through a compromise alliance with Merkel’s party, and lacked a unique image after turning from the left to the center of the political spectrum and returning again. .
But the current situation shows that when you are lucky enough to contend with two less impressive competitors, all of this can be corrected-if you can work together to launch a fierce, well-run campaign.
“The Social Democrats came up with a perfect campaign plan,” said Frank Stauss, a political communications expert whose agency had previously advised the German Social Democratic Party and the Austrian conservative ÖVP. “It is 100% in line with Scholz’s message.”
The CDU only agreed to nominate Lashet as Merkel’s successor in April, and its campaign looks far from tailored around its candidate, and it seems ridiculous.A CDU poster With the slogan “Keep Germany strong” written next to Rashet’s photo, he is seen as more of a builder of free compromise than a strong protector (especially through his surname, Rush method “Laziness” in German).
The Green Party nominated Annalena Baerbock as its first ever candidate for prime minister, and briefly soared to the top of the polls in May, giving the impression of being lost after the 40-year-old fell on plagiarism allegations. Gained confidence. Many of its posters depict her collaboration with Green’s co-leader Robert Habeck, or photographs of young people and families riding cargo bikes taken by Photostock.
Only the Social Democratic Party’s election campaign revolves entirely around the people it wants to promote to the highest seats. Designed by Raphael Brinkert, a sports marketing expert who campaigned for football players such as Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich, Fully reflects the image of Schultz (Scholz) as a boring but capable technical expert.
In several posters, the expressionless former mayor of Hamburg leaned back and faced the camera with a card with campaign promises: rising minimum wages, stable pensions, and the construction of 400,000 housing units per year. Schultz solved it It’s the slogan, “Scholz will sort it out.” Brinkert began participating in this event in May 2020, and he referred to his clients as efficient performers, not politicians eager to be liked. “Sometimes those who dare to get lucky,” Brinkett said when asked what politicians can learn from sports marketing.
Arresting posters and catchy slogans on their own will not win elections. Even in Scholz’s party, few people doubt that if the CDU and Green Party candidates are not proven to be so prone to gaffes and unpopular with voters, the Social Democratic Party Will continue to decline. “You might as well quote the theory of chaos,” a party worker said when explaining the surge in the center-left.
But if the newspaper can influence the election, it will be in Germany, where the print still plays an important role. “Now, political posters are experiencing a real renaissance,” Stauss said.
Regulations related to political advertising limit the broadcast time of political party TV broadcasts. Stas said that there are too many channels now that no one party can dominate social media.
“Every year, we say that we want to spend less on expensive poster events, and every year we find that they still make a difference,” he said. “Voters still have to leave. If you don’t show up on the street, they will notice: They think you have given up the fight.”
This will be an unprecedented vote in Germany: Europe’s largest economy has never held an election before, and the current prime minister is still very popular, but he did not run for re-election. Under such circumstances, for those politicians who position themselves as Merkel’s continuous candidates, a small move can make a big difference.
In the first of the three televised debates, Schultz gave such an accurate impression of Merkel’s style-standing up non-committal when his competitors tore each other-that most viewers were Chose him as the winner of the night, The principal himself had to intervene It was clarified the next day that there was “a huge difference in the future of Germany” between the Social Democratic Party and her.
In the next few weeks, Schultz may take more steps to remind voters that his tenure as finance minister and deputy prime minister has given him the international influence that conservatives and ecological competitors lack.
During the campaign, the 63-year-old received the loudest cheers when he mentioned a plan The lowest corporate tax rate in the world – Scholz rightly claimed to have started a project with his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire.
Skeptics say that once voters have more time to scrutinize the policies behind the billboard slogans, the lead of the Social Democratic Party will begin to disappear, just as it did with the Green Party and the CDU.
Conservatives launched a concerted campaign last week to oppose their foreseeable “leftist” if Scholz forms an alliance with the Green Party and the left-wing Die Linke-so far, the center-left has refused to rule out this option for tactical reasons. Supporters of Schultz say their opponents have missed the opportunity to reverse the situation. Due to the pandemic, it is expected that 40-50% of voters will vote by mail this year. The mailed ballot has been in contact with voters for two weeks.
