Steinmeimania
Frank-Walter Steinmeier – in short “f-w” for his campaign – is the former member of the German social-democratic party and their candidate for chancellor. He tries the US-fad to gain the European Elections and Bundestag elections by a kind of German-Obamania. “Steinmeimania”.
He tries to suit voters via StudiVZ/MeinVZ (the German national facebook), facebook, twitter, an interactive internet portal and whatever medium: pointing out how awesome he is, how brilliant his politics is, and how participatory his party is. And of course – how bad all the other parties are. Their slogan: “Financial sharks would vote for FDP. Minimum wages would vote for CDU. Hot air would vote for DIE LINKE.”
He uses his forenames like Hillary did, uses new media (in a dimension that tend to even be spam) and merchandise like Obama did, tries to mobilize the citizens, talks big like every successful politician should do…
No bad idea. But in fact it was the conservatives who gained the elections all over Europe. Even though they partly tend to not even occur in those social networks. No messages-all-the-time, no spam, no donation-/participating-appeal, no chivvy.
And it can be anticipated that the middle-/middle-left parties tend to lose the national elections most likely as well.
So why doesn’t that strategy work here as well?
Is it because of not being in America – Land of opportunity, country of voting-euphoria?
Because of the Germans / Europeans in general not being that euphemistic, mobile, interested in politics, or hardly national-orientated?
Or because of not being interested in Europe as a community?
Or because of not being Obama, man of all international hope?
Or because of trying to be kind of a new Obama instead of being himself?
Or is it because of inner-party-problems and a missing structure?
Or is it because his “middle-left-in-the-past-labor-party” struggles in this financial crisis even though it was their political enemies who helped carrying the crisis forward?
Or was it because of not being able to stand their ground in the past grand coalition?
Or is it because of Steinmeiers personality, who turned out to just not have the balls as like Merkel showed up when criticism occurred?
Or is it because voters simply do not like smear campaigns?
I guess all these factors prized the SPD out of the market by themselves.
All this new-media-campaign does not work if you chose the wrong agency.
But whatever it was: New media solely won’t help the SPD out of here.
Just remember where you come from.
Remember your roots and everything will be fine.
Change your campaign. Not your media.
Otherwise you will fail.
References:
http://www.wahlkampf09.de/2009/4/finanzhaie-wrden-fdp-whlen
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This is a really interesting take. I think a lot of the appeal of a candidate has to do with their individual personalities, but the political circumstances have a bearing, as well.
ReplyDeleteDuring the primaries, Obama's novice seemed to propel him, but in the actual elections, a lot came down to the state of the country. America had just gone through 8 years of deception, secrecy, and major breaches of civil liberties, and was facing an economic downfall, so another candidate like George W. Bush was not appealing. Obama brought something new to the arena.
Steinmeier now has the same crisis to deal with; but it seems as though Germany hasn't had as much national controversy since the last elections as in the US. Steinmeier's focus is on creating jobs - perhaps the most crucial thing on German minds nowadays. But it appears to be cliché at this point. He needs a more revolutionary approach, a fiery call to the end of the economic crisis with an emphasis on his direct role in the process. He needs to make people believe in his promises within their hearts, and not just hear it with their ears. Use the media, dare to be bold, don't just make people listen, make them WANT to listen.
...and they DID fail.
ReplyDeleteResounding.