Martin Schulz takes over as leader of Germany’s SPD

In a rare and historic show of unity, Germany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday unanimously endorsed Martin Schulz as party leader and challenger to Angela Merkel in September’s federal election.

After a six-week honeymoon that has seen the SPD, after years of struggle, bounce back in polls to breathe down the neck of Dr Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Mr Schulz vowed to take back power in Germany on a social justice and fairness platform.

Mr Schulz told the euphoric Berlin gathering on Sunday, after winning 605 out of 605 delegate votes: “I think this result is the start of the capture of the chancellery.”

The SPD will present its formal election programme in June, and refuses to say whether, to oust Dr Merkel, it would be prepared to ally with the Greens and the reformed communist Left Party (Linke) – until now a political taboo at federal level.

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Instead Mr Schulz used his speech on Sunday to present himself as a man from a working class background who had come along way thanks to social democracy, something Germany needed more of today.

He sketched out an alternative to Dr Merkel’s Germany, a place to prioritise social spending, free education from creche to college, improved old-age care, and targeted qualification to get the jobless back to work.

“We want the SPD to be the strongest political force after the federal election so it gets a mandate to make this country better and fairer,” he said, “and to give the people of this country the respect they deserve. For that, dear comrades, I want to be the next German chancellor.”

Some 15 years after the SPD introduced controversial social and economic reforms, reviving the economy but ending the Schröder era, Mr Schulz has rediscovered the party’s centre-left roots to pull back voters who have drifted off in three directions: to the Linke, the hard right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the non-voter camp.

He has promised family-friendly tax and working hours, vowed to close the “intolerable” gender pay gap and introduce marriage equality for homosexuals.

In a barnstorming speech, interrupted by enthusiastic applause, the 61-year-old former European Parliament president attacked rising political extremism in Germany, dubbing the far-right, anti-immigrant Pegida movement, and the right-wing populist AfD, a “disgrace”.

The new SPD leader also drew parallels between the extremist shouts of “Lügenpresse”, or lying press in Germany, with the “fake news” claims of US president Donald Trump.

“Whoever describes free reporting as lying press, whoever deals selectively with the media, takes an axe to the root of democracy,” he said, “regardless of whether you are the president of the United States or walking along with a Pegida demonstration.”

Mr Schulz was handed the reigns in January by Sigmar Gabriel, who stood down after seven difficult years heading the SPD after he declined to run against Dr Merkel. On Sunday, Mr Gabriel, now foreign minister, joked that the leadership handover was the “most optimistic” in living memory.