On January 21, 1983, the SPD held its party congress in Dortmund. There, former Munich mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel was elected as the SPD’s top candidate for chancellor in the March 1983 elections. In an election advertisement, Vogel said he dared to “preserve and develop the legacy of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt.” Given the emphasis then being placed on negotiations on intermediate-range missiles and on the SPD’s demand, as put forth in their election program, for a moratorium on the stationing of missile systems, Vogel’s statement was supposed to stress continuity with Helmut Schmidt’s approach to foreign and security policy. Along with the debate about NATO’s Dual-Track Decision, the economic situation in the Federal Republic was a key election theme. The ongoing recession, however, prevented the SPD from convincing enough voters of their capacity to govern. The following SPD campaign poster consists of a simple statement by Vogel; it reads: “I ask voters for the authority, indeed, for the mandate, of doing everything possible, in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany, to make the stationing of missiles redundant.”