What is displayed on the screen seems rather presumptuous, almost absurd. Outside this room in central Berlin, it would merely produce sympathetic head shaking and a bit of wry chuckling. But here, nobody is laughing. They apparently mean it seriously.

It is Jan. 13, 2020, and the meeting is taking place at the headquarters of the ASK.Berlin communications agency in the German capital, where the leadership of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has gathered. The new party heads Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans have invited senior SPD members to get together for a strategy meeting on the 2021 general election campaign, still on the distant horizon, and a presentation is up on screen. A slide comes up with the heading “Our Goal,” with three dark red boxes beneath it.

“We want to achieve a successful result in the election,” reads the first box.

In the second: “Successful means a better result than last time.”

And in the third: “We want to lead the next federal government.”

Really?