By January 29th, Schulz had been named the SPD’s candidate to run against Merkel. By early March, he had brought the SPD neck and neck with her Christian Democratic Union party (CDU); for two full months, polls showed him as the Germans’ chancellor of choice over Merkel, stunning everyone, including the SPD.

Then, just as quickly, the freak storm that was Martin Schulz dissipated. Were the election held today, the SPD would only receive 23 percent of the vote (three percent less than four years ago) and 16 percentage points behind Merkel’s CDU. In a one-on-one debate with Merkel on September 3rd, Schulz tried to recapture some of his momentum, underscoring the precarious nature of today’s labor market and the plight of future retirees. But the missives sounded like platitudes, and fell flat.

In this way, and many others, Schulz seemed to succumb to the typical vulnerabilities of populists. In general, they are mavericks who posit the world in “us versus them” terms. They claim to be the ones who truly represent “the people” in the face of a corrupt elite, often relying on emotional appeals and simplistic explanations for complex problems.

While another Merkel victory on September 24th is almost certain, the winter of Martin Schulz raises tantalizing questions for leftist populists who seek to follow in his footsteps, both in Germany and across Europe. They can inspire and enflame with their language and messaging. But can they stick to their lofty principles, and translate those principles into actual solutions? And, of course: can they win?

Schulz, the son of a police officer and a book seller, had the pedigree of a natural populist. A product of public education and a soccer star as a youth, he joined the SPD as a teenager. His athletic prospects imploded with a knee injury when he was 19 years old, plunging him into depression and alcoholism. He eventually swore off drink, earned a marketing degree, and opened a bookstore in his native hamlet of Würselen. In 1987, he was elected mayor of Würselen; while he would win two more terms by wide margins, these are the only popular votes in German politics that he has contested. His 11 years as mayor were notably lacking in achievements, save for one: He helped lay the groundwork for a high-tech industrial park in the Rhineland, whose mining-based economy had been decimated by the drop in global coal prices in the nineties.

By 1994, Schulz had captured an SPD seat in the European Parliament, where he was known as a savvy orator and deft political operator; in 2004, he won the leadership of the all-EU center-left faction, composed of the continent’s social democrats. He pledged to make the EU more transparent, eschewing backroom dealing. And he called for deepening financial integration in the eurozone in order to shore up the common currency and aid troubled countries like Greece.