Berlin On the evening of the election, Rolf Mützenich is in the SPD party headquarters and is happy. Thieving. What kind of malice has the SPD parliamentary group leader not had to endure in the past few months. Also and especially from the Greens. After the election, the Mützenich eco-party had attacked, the Greens would move to the SPD parliamentary group because of their manpower. The room is named after Otto Wels, who was chairman of the SPD from 1919 until the time of the exile SPD during the Nazi rule.
For Mützenich it was an unbearable idea to have to leave the hall. It would have been a symbolic hostile takeover of the SPD legacy by the Greens.
And now this: The SPD is not only allowed to stay in the hall, but is even the strongest parliamentary group in the Bundestag. And Mützenich your old and new boss. On Wednesday, the 62-year-old was re-elected parliamentary group leader with 97 percent.
Even if he was actually only re-elected, the choice for “hat”, as his comrades call him, is another leap in his career. Because if a traffic light coalition should come about, Mützenich will be the man who has to assemble the SPD parliamentary group, which has grown by 54 to 206 members, behind its chancellor.
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Potential for conflict between the Chancellery and parliamentary group
This is by no means just going to be a pleasure. There are some conflicts lurking between an SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the SPD parliamentary group, but the parliamentary group will not be satisfied with its role as a pure chancellor implementation association. It is still open, however, whether it will be Mützenich who will lead the parliamentary group permanently – or whether he will soon have a new post.
Mützenich is considered one of the most polite and friendliest people in political Berlin, as a man of low tones. He has never been on Twitter to this day, and the political scientist with a doctorate in politics has nothing to do with the riot there. It was also his friendliness that quickly set Mützenich apart from his predecessor Andrea Nahles after taking over the chairmanship of the parliamentary group in 2019 and made it popular among colleagues just as quickly.
The influential office fell to Mützenich rather by chance. After Nahles’ surprising resignation as head of the party and parliamentary group, the foreign policy expert was the parliamentary deputy for the longest time and took over the job on an interim basis. Demands were quickly made that the Cologne-based party should remain leader of the parliamentary group for the long term.
The friendliness shouldn’t hide the fact that Mützenich knows how to use his power. Since his studies with peace researcher Dieter Senghaas and his doctoral thesis on nuclear weapons in 1991, Mützenich had doubts about the effect of nuclear deterrence. He also expressed this as the new leader of the parliamentary group and caused some unrest. Mützenich, however, stuck to his course and used his new power to bring the SPD bit by bit on a more left-wing and more pacifist course in defense policy.
Defense politician threw down because of Mützenich
When the SPD parliamentary group decided last year not to agree to the Union’s application to purchase armed drones, the parliamentary’s defense policy spokesman, Fritz Felgentreu, threw it out. And in the dispute over the appointment of new members of the German Bundestag’s defense commissioner, Mützenich served two other SPD politicians, Hans-Peter Bartels and Johannes Kahrs, who relied on a pragmatic defense policy.
At that time, Mützenich was criticized for the first time in the parliamentary group. He leads too little, gives too little content-related impulses, let every person end in a dispute, including the appointment of a new Vice President of the Bundestag. But after the SPD’s election victory, that’s all snow before yesterday. Mützenich was an “important building block” for the election victory, said Olaf Scholz on the day after the election. He is “a good man, we need him”. Mützenich, in turn, said that the parliamentary group would elect Scholz as Chancellor after successful coalition negotiations. “That is our promise.”
In the long run, however, it might not be easy for Mützenich to keep the parliamentary group completely under control. With the election there was a generation change, many new parliamentary group members are of Juso age, including some leftists such as Juso boss Jessica Rosenthal.
Mützenich is convinced that the new colleagues would quickly learn what faction discipline means. But it is precisely in security and defense policy that there is a risk of conflicts between the Chancellery and the parliamentary group.
As Federal Chancellor, Scholz would have to act very pragmatically, which does not fit the basic left-pacifist orientation of Mützenich and his parliamentary group. Just one example: while an increase in defense spending is urgently needed in order to fulfill the promises made to NATO, Mützenich has repeatedly spoken out against it.
Will Mützenich become President of the Bundestag?
Perhaps Mützenich no longer has to deal with these conflicts at all. Because although he has just been elected as parliamentary group leader, the 62-year-old is being traded for another office: as the future President of the Bundestag. “That is an obvious option,” it says from his party. As the strongest parliamentary group, the SPD has the right to propose the position.
Mützenich would no doubt bring the necessary gravitas for the successor to Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). Another advantage of this solution: In a three-party government there are fewer ministerial posts for the SPD; a change in Mützenich would free up an influential office. A possible successor is the head of the left wing of the party, Michael Miersch. Secretary General Lars Klingbeil would also be considered if a ministerial post did not work out.
What speaks against a change, however: With Mützenich, the third high office in the state alongside the Federal Chancellor and Federal President would be in the hands of an SPD man. For a party of parity like the SPD that would look somewhat strange.
Mützenich himself left a candidacy for the office of President of the Bundestag open on Wednesday. “If it’s supposed to be an appreciation that I’m named, I’ll be happy about it,” he said.
More: The Chancellery alone will not be enough for the SPD