Birleşme Sonrası Almanya’da İdealist Avrupa Yanlılığı ile İç İdeolojik Öncelikler Arasında Alman Sosyal Demokrat Partisi

Abstract

The main thrust of this article is to examine the evolution of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – SPD)’s Europhile position since German reunification from a broader ideological perspective. To this end, this study rests on the field research that entails 16 semi-structured interviews with high-profile SPD political elites and archival research on key official party documents. Based on this analysis, the main argument of this study is that the SPD encountered a growing tension between idealistic and domestic views of European integration since 1990. Under the impact of the post-reunification domestic problems and Chancellor Schröder’s assertive European policy line, the German Social Democrats’ ideology-driven doubts about European integration increased at the expense of their idealistic pro-Europeanism. Over time, this tension led to the greater prominence of ideological pragmatism in the SPD’s official European Union (EU) narrative, rendering Europe a politically and ideologically salient issue for the party.