BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday formally endorsed former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September.

Martin Schulz reacts after he was elected new Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader during an SPD party convention in Berlin, Germany, March 19, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new members as the 61-year-old focuses his campaign on social justice.

“The SPD is back! We’re back!” Schulz told around 600 delegates at a party meeting in Berlin shortly before he was chosen as SPD leader in a vote in which all 605 of the valid votes gave him a ‘yes’. Delegates signaled with their hands they also wanted him to run for the SPD in the Sept. 24 election.

While the center-left SPD is slightly behind Merkel’s conservatives in the latest Emnid poll, it showed Schulz should be able to take power with a left-leaning alliance involving the far-left Linke and Greens in what would be the first time Germany has ever had a ‘red-red-green’ coalition at the national level.

“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 and to give the people of this country the respect they deserve and I want, dear comrades, to be the next German chancellor,” Schulz said.

He reiterated his calls for free education, more investment such as in nursing care and schools as well as qualification programs for the unemployed in a speech that earned him a standing ovation.

It is necessary to close the “intolerable pay gap” so men and women in both eastern and western Germany get the same amount of pay for doing the same work, Schulz said.

He also said he wanted to introduce special working hours - financially supported by the government - for those with families, but he did not give further details.

The former mayor of Wuerselen, a small town near the Dutch border, has made much of his humble beginnings and on Sunday recounted how he was born in western Germany as the fifth child of a policeman and housewife, who he described as “simple and very decent people”.

He said he was “lazy” at school and thought only of football, ultimately dropping out of school and losing his way before getting a second chance. Schulz later trained as a bookseller and opened a bookshop before becoming a member of the European Parliament in the mid-1990s.

His nomination for SPD leader followed a decision by Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to stand aside as SPD head because he thought Schulz had a better chance of winning the election.</s>Germany’s Social Democratic Party has unanimously elected Martin Schulz as the party’s top candidate to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in the country’s forthcoming general election.

Party leaders had unexpectedly nominated Schulz in January after long-time chairman Sigmar Gabriel stepped aside.

Since then, the Social Democrats have enjoyed a surge in the polls that has been attributed to the “Schulz effect”.

In a speech to delegates at a special convention in Berlin, Schulz evoked the party’s 154-year history of campaigning for workers’ rights and called for greater investment in education and health care.

He blamed the growing gap between average voters and the ultra-rich for souring politics and for boosting the popularity of nationalist and populist politicians.

The 61-year-old, who was until recently the president of the European Parliament, said his party would work to strengthen international co-operation, including with the United States, but rejected what he called the “misogynistic, anti-democratic and racist” rhetoric of President Donald Trump.

Schulz, the only nominee for the post of party chairman, received 100% of the delegates’ votes, an unprecedented result in its post-war history.

An opinion poll published Sunday by the weekly Bild am Sonntag put support for the Social Democrats at 32%, one point behind Merkel’s Union bloc.

Analysts say Schulz benefits from being a relative newcomer to domestic politics compared with Merkel, who is running for a fourth term on September 24.

The Social Democrats’ general secretary, Katarina Barley, told reporters the party has seen 13,000 new members join this year.

The first real test of the “Schulz effect” comes next Sunday, when voters in the small western state of Saarland go to the polls to elect a new government.

Schulz and Merkel’s parties are currently in a coalition government in the state, as they are at the national level.</s>Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic Party is holding a special convention to confirm Martin Schulz as the party’s top candidate to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in the country’s forthcoming general election.

Party leaders unexpectedly nominated Schulz after long-time chairman Sigmar Gabriel stepped aside in January. The party has since experienced a surge in the polls not seen in a decade.

Analysts say Schulz, 61, benefits from being a relative newcomer to domestic politics. Until his nomination, he was president of the European Parliament.

The Social Democrats’ general secretary, Katarina Barley, told reporters ahead of the convention on Sunday that the party has seen 13,000 new members join this year.

Merkel, whose centre-right Christian union bloc is in a coalition with the Social Democrats, is running for a fourth term on September 24.</s>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.

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.</s>Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday formally endorsed former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September.

The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new members as the 61-year-old focuses his campaign on social justice.

"The SPD is back! We're back!" Schulz told around 600 delegates at a party meeting in Berlin shortly before he was chosen as SPD leader in a vote in which all 605 of the valid votes gave him a 'yes'. Delegates signalled with their hands they also wanted him to run for the SPD in the Sept. 24 election.</s>BERLIN - Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday formally endorsed former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September.

The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new members as the 61-year-old focuses his campaign on social justice.

"The SPD is back! We're back!" Schulz told around 600 delegates at a party meeting in Berlin shortly before he was chosen as SPD leader in a vote in which all 605 of the valid votes gave him a 'yes'.

Delegates signalled with their hands they also wanted him to run for the SPD in the Sept. 24 election.

He also reiterated his calls for free education, more investment such as in nursing care and schools.

as well as qualification programmes for the unemployed in a speech that earned him a standing ovation. It is necessary to close the "intolerable pay gap" so men and women in both eastern and western Germany get the same amount of pay for doing the same work, Schulz said.</s>Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) have voted overwhelmingly for former European parliament president Martin Schulz to become the party’s new head and the main challenger to Angela Merkel in September’s general election.

Schulz, 61, who has emerged in recent weeks as Germany’s version of the US democrat Bernie Sanders, earning support in particular among young voters who have dubbed him the SPD’s “fresh wind”, secured all 605 votes at a special party conference in Berlin on Sunday, a record result beating even Kurt Schumacher, the party’s popular postwar leader, who secured 99.71% of the vote in 1948.

Commentators predicted Schulz could become the most popular social democrat since the cold war-era chancellor Willy Brandt.

Schulz, who apart from serving as a provincial mayor for several years has not held a high-profile political post in Germany but instead has made his career in European politics, called the result the “prelude to conquest of the chancellory”.

“This is an overwhelming moment for me and for us all,” Schulz told the meeting. Shortly afterwards the strains of Louis Armstrong’s It’s a Wonderful World filled the conference hall.

On Sunday, a poll showed a left-leaning alliance led by the SPD would potentially have enough support to oust Merkel from power in crucial parliamentary elections, expected to be held on 24 September.

Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative alliance has 33% support, with the SPD on 32%. If the SPD were to join forces with the far-left Die Linke, which has 8%, and the Greens, also on 8%, it would have enough to form a coalition government.

In a speech to party members, a jubilant Schulz, who wiped away tears, pledged to support the working man and woman, and to ensure social justice for all, from the nursery to retirement.

He sharply attacked the rightwing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), currently on 8% in the polls, compared the far-right protest group Pegida to supporters of Donald Trump, and criticised a conservative re-election pledge to reduce taxes as sending out a wrong signal.

Schulz also repeated his vow to undo some of the radical labour market changes introduced by Gerhard Schröder, the last SPD chancellor, which have been seen as the main reason for the party’s chronic poor standing in the polls.

The SPD has for years trailed the CDU/CSU, but its support surged in January when Schulz announced his intention to stand for party leader, and Sigmar Gabriel, its leader for the past seven and a half years, agreed to step down. The party’s poll ratings have since risen by about 10% and it has enjoyed a significant increase in card-carrying members, after years of losses.

Merkel’s conservatives have been in power under her since 2005. The CDU/CSU formed a coalition with the SPD for the first term, then joined up with the pro-business Free Democrats for the second, and in 2013 teamed up once again with the SPD.

Since Schulz arrived on the scene, the SPD is feeling its first chance for years to wrest back power is finally in sight.

Merkel remains the most popular choice for chancellor, however, with 46% of voters saying they would choose her in a direct vote, against 38% for Schulz. But with six months to go, and observers saying voters’ weariness towards Merkel could grow in that time, the “Schulz effekt” might yet make its impact felt far more than would have been thought possible even a few weeks ago.

Sanders is seen as something of a role model for Schulz, with young Germans in particular becoming newly politicised following the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election. Schulz rallies typically attract hundreds of young people, many of whom are keen to take selfies with the former bookshop owner and reformed alcoholic.

Gabriel, who recently became Germany’s foreign minister, called Schulz’s arrival “the most joyful and optimistic transfer to a new leader that this party has experienced in decades”. He added, for his part, “there is no reason for melancholy”.</s>Germany's centre-left Social Democratic Party has elected Martin Schulz as the party's top candidate to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in the country's upcoming general election.

The anti-populist has already vowed to reject US President Donald Trump's 'racist and misogynistic' tactics after being unanimously elected by his left-wing party.

Schulz, who dropped out of school without taking his final exams, was only recently the president of the European Parliament.

Party leaders had unexpectedly nominated Schulz in January after long-time chairman Sigmar Gabriel stepped aside.

Since then, the Social Democrats have enjoyed a surge in the polls that's been attributed to the 'Schulz effect.'

In a speech to delegates at a special convention in Berlin, Schulz evoked the party's 154-year history of campaigning for workers' rights and called for greater investment in education and health care.

He blamed the growing gap between average voters and the ultra-rich for souring politics and for boosting the popularity of nationalist and populist politicians.

The 61-year-old said his party would work to strengthen international cooperation, including with the United States, but rejected what he called the 'misogynistic, anti-democratic and racist' rhetoric of President Donald Trump.

Schulz, the only nominee for the post of party chairman, received 100 percent of the delegates' votes, an unprecedented result in its post-war history.

An opinion poll published Sunday by the weekly Bild am Sonntag put support for the Social Democrats at 32 percent, one point behind Merkel's Union bloc.

Analysts say Schulz benefits from being a relative newcomer to domestic politics compared to Merkel, who is running for a fourth term on September 24.

The Social Democrats' general secretary, Katarina Barley, told reporters the party has seen 13,000 new members join this year.

The first real test of the 'Schulz effect' comes next Sunday, when voters in the small western state of Saarland go to the polls to elect a new government.

Schulz and Merkel's parties are currently in a coalition government in the state, as they are at the national level.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Schulz dropped out of school before taking his final exams and then struggled with alcoholism.

But he reinvented himself as a bookseller and politician in Würselen, western Germany and has been teetotal since 1989.

In his younger years he was close to becoming a professional footballer only for injury to end his chances.</s>BERLIN (Sputnik) — Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz was approved at a special conference of Germany's Social Democratic Party on Sunday as party chief and chancellor nominee.

A total of 605 delegates out of 608 voted in favor of Schulz, with three ballots recognized as not valid.

The snap party conference is taking place in Berlin and has gathered about 3,000 guests and 500 journalists.</s>Germany's centre-left Social Democratic Party nominated Martin Schulz as its chairman and party candidate to take on Angela Merkel in the country's forthcoming federal elections.

Accepting the party's nomination on Sunday (19 March), Schulz vowed to fight populism if his party wins the elections in September.

A former president of the European Parliament, Schulz was nominated with 100% of the votes, the first time the party has unanimously nominated a candidate.

The party has been a junior partner in the country's coalition government since 2013. It hopes that Schulz will boost its chances of winning a majority.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party currently leads in polls, but Schulz's popularity compares favourably with Merkel, who has announced her intention to stand for a fourth term.

Accepting the nomination at the party's conference in Berlin, Schulz criticised US President Donald Trump and pledged to defend the European Union.

"Those who want to do away with this bloc will find in me an energetic opponent," Schulz said. "Anyone who thinks you can separate national interests from Europe is wasting away the future of Germany."

Schulz replaces Sigmar Gabriel as party chairman, who had trailed Merkel in head-to-head polls.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany endorses Martin Schulz as its leader.