Germany's struggling Social Democrats (SPD) have tried to revamp the party leadership by appointing some heavy hitters to top posts. On Monday SPD leader Kurt Beck unveiled his new slimmed-down team -- the popular foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the reforming finance minister, Peer Steinbrück, and a young left-winger, Andrea Nahles -- in the hope that they can help revive the party's fortunes.

The Social Democrats have long felt like poor cousins in the ruling coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). A series of tough reforms implemented by Gerhard Schröder's SPD-Green coalition have started to bring economic benefits, but the SPD has failed to capitalize on these improvements or on Germany's increased international standing. That's despite the fact that both Steinmeier and Steinbrück are Social Democrats. Now, by including both ministers in the party leadership, Beck hopes to increase the SPD's profile and re-energize its base.

German newspapers on Tuesday are largely positive about Beck's move, though some worry about Steinmeier's apparent promotion in spite of the lingering Murat Kurnaz case, and others point out that all three new deputy leaders could end up outshining Beck in the coming years. One might even usurp him as the SPD's candidate to challenge Merkel in 2009.

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"There is no doubt that Kurt Beck is right to slim down the party leadership. There is also a lot to be said for his three future deputies. They are the best that the SPD has to offer in terms of leadership. Once could view it as a sign of strength that Beck, whose weaknesses in public image are so obvious, would recruit three deputies who outshine him in this area. The message to voters is: We are stronger as a team, and the CDU/CSU doesn’t have much more to offer than Chancellor Angela Merkel …"

"So far, so good, one could say … But at the end of the day: it is personalities who are elected, not teams. In 2009 it will be a contest between Angela Merkel and her challenger. That person was sitting on the podium during yesterday's press conference -- but it won't necessarily be Beck."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Just because the SPD leader has performed badly in opinion polls, some people have assumed that he is a weak party leader. But now Kurt Beck has proven that he is not. With one precise blow he has broken a tradition cultivated for decades."

"Now the SPD can go from being a collection of different groupings to a tightly led organisation. Since the 1970s the party had devoted itself to different movements of the zeitgeist. Every pole had to be represented: women and men, old and young, right and left, federal and state goverments, East as well as West. The battle lines in society were represented, but the battles themselves never happened. The result was a chaotic stalemate."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"Throwing the conventional proportional representation out the window and, in doing so, alienating part of his own power base was the boldest thing Beck could have done."

"The old pattern of man-woman, left-right, West-East, has been replaced by a leadership structure that still contains elements of proportionality, but a different kind.

"Beck has realized that weak deputies don’t make a leader look strong. He has surrounded himself with two men who are of at least he same caliber as him, but lack their own power bases. He can hardly fear that they will go up against him to be the party candidate for chancellor."

The left-leaning Tageszeitung writes:

"The signal that the SPD leadership sent out yesterday to the comrades in the East was: 'Unfortunately' our best people are all from the West, and you will just have to put up with not having any direct link to the party leadership. Is that wise? Proportionality will now be missing in the East ... The grassroots won't be pleased. And without them, it will be pretty difficult to govern."

"The SPD leadership has shown that it has views the Kurnaz case as water under the bridge, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier's behaviour as completely moral. The desire to show him goodwill has gone far beyond the normal level of solidarity … It is a slap in the face of all of those who have criticized the previous Red-Green government's treatment of Murat Kurnaz as ruthless and self-righteous."