The new SPD party leadership is in place: On Monday, the party executive unanimously nominated Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil as the new dual leadership. As expected, Klingbeil follows Norbert Walter-Borjans. The 69-year-old had previously stated that after two years at the party leadership at the party congress in December, he did not want to run for party leader again. Esken and Klingbeil should now be chosen there.
Klingbeil had already shown his willingness to run for office in the last few days. Esken announced last week that he would run again as party leader. Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz praised the likely future management duo as “a very good team for progress and cohesion”.
Although other applicants can theoretically declare their candidacy, they should not have any prospect of success. At the moment it is unclear what the rest of the party leadership will look like. For example, the successor to Klingbeil as General Secretary is open. It is true that the name of Vice-Vice President Kevin Kühnert is mentioned again and again for the post. Most recently, however, it was said from SPD circles that the post would rather go to a woman. Kühnert would inevitably be trapped in the role of the “antagonist to Scholz”, which would not do himself a favor either.
It is also still open who the future representatives of Esken and Klingbeil will be. There could be fight candidates here. NRW state chief Thomas Kutschaty, who has not previously belonged to the party leadership, is said to be interested in one of the deputy posts.
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Esken and Klingbeil wrote in a joint letter to the party members, “The unity, the mutual respect and the seriousness with which we have acted in the past few months have made us strong. We want to maintain this political style even in a new composition. ”They wanted to position the SPD as a“ modern people’s party ”that reflects the diversity of society and builds bridges between social groups.
Klingbeil wants to renew the SPD further
Klingbeil said in a video message that the reform process of the SPD, which he had initiated since his time as Secretary General in 2017, has not yet been completed. “If we do everything right, then we will have a decade of social democracy in Germany, but also in Europe,” said the 43-year-old.
In the past few years the SPD has achieved a lot and finally won the federal election. “But I want it to go on. An election victory is not enough for me, ”said Klingbeil. The SPD also wants to win the upcoming state elections in Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.
In contrast to the designated party left Esken, Klingbeil is one of the business-friendly wing of the SPD. He and Esken have known each other for many years, for example from their time together as digital politicians in the Bundestag.
In 2017, Klingbeil became Secretary General. During this time he served eight chairmen, most recently Esken. The collaboration went surprisingly smoothly. At least no quarrel got out, during the election campaign the SPD was more closed than it has been for a long time.
Klingbeil is highly credited internally for keeping the SPD together at the top of the party in times of this high fluctuation. It has also shown that it is popular with voters. He took his constituency in rural Lower Saxony from the Union in 2017 and defended it this year with 47 percent, an outstanding first vote result. Also because of this election success against the general trend, Martin Schulz made Klingbeil Secretary General in 2017.
For even higher ordinations, Klingbeil recommended himself through the federal election. He is considered the architect of the successful election campaign. At least since then, earlier criticism of the Secretary General has been forgotten.
Klingbeil was an atypical general secretary
Klingbeil was accused of acting too tame and of attacking the political opponent too little. Klingbeil himself never saw his role that way. He thought little of playing the steamy loudspeaker as Secretary General.
From Klingbeil’s point of view, politics is more than just knocking on a spell, especially handicraft: a lot of planning, a lot of consultation and proper interaction with one another. In this political style he is very similar to Olaf Scholz, even if the two are otherwise different characters. Klingbeil’s temperament is better suited to the office of chairman than that of general secretary, say quite a few in the party.
After the election victory, Klingbeil was able to apply for higher offices. He himself was initially acted as defense minister and has not denied this. Klingbeil’s father was a soldier and the largest army base is in his constituency in Munster. At the same time, Klingbeil was already in the past few weeks as reserve chairman of the SPD after it became apparent that Walter-Borjans could not run again as party leader.
Klingbeil and Esken could take on a ministerial office in addition to the party chairmanship. Esken kept this option open on Monday. The SPD party statutes allow this – unlike the Greens – explicitly.
However, such an accumulation of offices is considered unlikely. Most recently, several SPD politicians such as parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich had spoken out in favor of sticking to the previous separation of party chairmanship and ministerial offices.
In the opinion of many comrades, this separation ensures that the SPD’s independence is maintained. In contrast to the Union, the SPD traditionally attaches great importance to government responsibility to remain visible as a party and not to be perceived as a mere appendage of the Federal Chancellery. Esken and Walter-Borjans started as party leaders two years ago with precisely this claim.
On the left wing of the party there was concern that little would be left of this independence, even if Esken no longer ran and instead switched to the federal cabinet, as has been speculated. After some deliberation, however, Esken decided to remain party chairman. “What was achieved in the membership decision remains the same: Saskia stays on board,” said Walter-Borjans.
Esken: “We now have to learn from success”
The party leader continues to be viewed critically from the business-friendly wing of the party. However, her opponents also certify that they have made “a steep learning curve” in office, as one comrade put it.
Esken said on Monday that the SPD had shown that it can learn from mistakes. “Now we have to learn from the success.” She wanted to strengthen the SPD “with the members as an independent political force” in order to work out the core brand of the party.
In the new constellation with a Social Democratic Chancellor, this will not be an easy task. Esken and Klingbeil have to enforce their party’s positions, for example in the coalition committee, in which coalition conflicts are resolved and in which the party leaders play a central role.
They must succeed in this without damaging their own social democratic chancellor too much. Even in the grand coalition, many Social Democrats thought that Scholz made too many compromises. In a three-way alliance, however, these will be all the more necessary. Any internal party criticism from the SPD of allegedly wax-soft compromises is then always also a criticism of its own chancellor.
The SPD is currently intoxicated with the election victory and the prospect of the fourth Social Democrat in the Chancellery. And Scholz is not yet Chancellor, the coalition negotiations are stalling, which also ensures discipline. But whether the new unity of the SPD will actually hold will be shown in everyday government.
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