Podle tohoto názoru dnes strana platí daň za úspěšnou snahu kancléře Gerharda Schrödera o hospodářské reformy na počátku tisíciletí. Pravděpodobnější se ovšem zdá, že strana byla potrestána za nevýraznou předvolební kampaň a za negativismus, s nímž se snažila vykreslit jeden možný výsledek voleb, totiž středopravou koalici, jako ohrožení sociálního smíru v Německu.
The real losers of the election were the Social Democrats, with a drop in support of 11% that is without precedent in the very stable history of German electoral behavior. Some on the left claim that the SPD’s catastrophic result was the product of too close an engagement with liberalism and deregulation.  According to this view, the party is now paying the price for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s successful attempts at economic reform in the early 2000’s.  It seems more likely that the party was punished for its lackluster electoral campaign, and for the negativity with which it tried to present the outcome of the election (the center-right coalition) as a threat to social peace in Germany.