Is the SPD heading for political extinction?

In modern German elections, parties only need a small slice of popular approval to win. That strange arithmetic could yet save the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Dear Reader,

Superwahljahr 2026 — super election year 2026 — has begun, and things have not started well for the Social Democrats, Germany’s oldest party and the political home of chancellors such as Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and (ahem) Gerhard Schröder.

In Baden-Württemberg on Sunday, the Social Democrats won just 5.5 percent of the vote, putting them…