In an interview with SPIEGEL, Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the opposition center-left Social Democrats, outlines his plans to tame financial capitalism, warns that the supposed supremacy of banks and markets is eroding faith in politics and says the SPD would do a better job containing the crisis.

SPIEGEL: Criticising capitalism seems to be all the rage – even Frank Schirrmacher, Editor in Chief of the conservative daily Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung, has joined capitalism’s critics. Why is the SPD remaining true to the existing system?

Gabriel: We have long criticized financial capitalism for trying to evade almost any form of democratic influence. We, the Social Democrats, are convinced that capitalism needs to be tamed a second time. The first time we achieved that in Germany for many decades with the social market economy. That is no longer enough. Now we need to do it in Europe and even globally.

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