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The comrades can hardly grasp their own fortune. Since they depend for years firmly in the poll Keller, Angela Merkel smiles sympathetically and unreachable from the top floor down. Then comes Martin Schulz .

Since Sigmar Gabriel has plotted his friend, the ex-president of the European Parliament, the party presidency and the chancellorship, acting SPD as reanimated. Just pissed on. The projection of the CDU and CSU will melt together , a polling firm sees the SPD even front . Even in the chancellor preference, Schulz has already taken over or even overtaken the owner in some surveys.

The election campaign has not even begun, and by September 24th there are still more than seven months. And so far, the top candidate had simply to be a top candidate in order to bring life to the dizzy comrades.

The closer the election day comes, the more it will be about the content of the SPD challenger, not just about his passion and authenticity. So the real work begins - the work on the program. And right here, Schulz knows, lurk the real risks of the election campaign.

Who is to show him something? Schulz is Mister Europa, for more than 22 years he was in the Europaparlament, five years he was president. The SPD politician knows everything and everyone in Brussels and Strasbourg, is wired with many heads of state and government.

But that can be a disadvantage in the election campaign. In the federal policy, Schulz may be a fresh face, and in the EU he belonged to the power apparatus. "The ones in Brussels" are not necessarily easy for the ordinary citizen. The Union wants to pull this map, and the CDU is only too happy to be heard as an Europaparte. And Merkel has maintained a good relationship with the Europapolitiker Schulz in the past.

Schulz's credibility could be put to the test by the Greek crisis, which has just returned with power. As the President of the European Parliament, he always opposed the savings policy promoted by the Federal Government. Schulz does not want to know anything about Eurobonds today, but one can not wait to see how much understanding he will bring to overburdened member states, now that he wants to become Federal Chancellor in the Black Zero country.

The classic of the Social Democracy: "Time for More Justice" is the motto of Schulz 'campaign so far. However, Peer Steinbrück has already tried to lead a ruling election campaign in one of many well-off countries - with a well-known result.

After all, the personal credibility problems of Steinbriick, the high-ranking lecturer, scoffed at cheap wine and demanded more money for the Chancellor, Schulz probably do not threaten. But also the new candidate has to be careful, as the past days have shown.

Schulz complained on all the channels, which would be to pay casualties and bonuses. At the same time, it was announced that ex-VW CEO Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, even a social democrat, should receive twelve million euros after only 13 months' work. The state of Lower Saxony is part of VW, SPD Minister President Stephan Weil is on the Supervisory Board.

Schulz wants to make his mark especially in the fight against tax evasion. Him happy to be his opponent then remember how it once the European Parliament's Duz-mate Jean-Claude Juncker saved a committee of inquiry to the disputed tax practices in Luxembourg. Juncker was a long-time government minister and finance minister of the Grand Duchy, today he is EU Commission President.

How Schulz 'control concept should look in detail is still uncertain. "It's all right," says Schulz. Only so much: He wants to take the rich more into the duty and relieve lower and middle income. He is skeptical about tax cuts. The fact is: In this field, he has with finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble the probably strongest and most respected minister of the government to the opponent.

For years, Sigmar Gabriel has been aware that his party has serious problems in the field of internal security: the SPD lacks a head like the long-time Federal Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, who also had a police helmet, and the citizens in this area Traditionally trust the Union anyway. No wonder, then, that after the Christmas market attack from Berlin, Gabriel published a security paper in the greatest haste to position the SPD: more police, the full severity of the law, better prevention in the fight against extremists.

But Gabriel has retired to the Foreign Office - now the future party chairman and chancellor candidate Schulz has to set the course in the security policy. Only what? Schulz has so far been little concrete, which might in particular be understood by Social Democrats from the left wing as a vacuum, which they now want to fill themselves.

This can already be seen in refugee policy. According to a "World" report, many left-wing SPD Bundestag representatives, who want to enable family reunion also for Syrian refugees who enjoy only subsidiary protection status. In the so-called Asylpaket 2, the Union and the SPD last year agreed to grant family suffers only Syrians with asylum status.

The SPD strategists know: if Schulz really wants to have a chance against Merkel, for which he must pull massive voices from the political middle, the Social Democrat must not be too soft on these issues.