The decision about the party leadership still has to be confirmed by postal vote.
(Photo: imago images / photothek)
Berlin Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken have been elected as the new SPD dual leadership. A largely digital party congress elected the previous Secretary General Klingbeil (43) on Saturday in Berlin with 86.3 percent of the vote. The 60-year-old party leader Saskia Esken was confirmed in office with 76.7 percent. The decision still has to be confirmed by postal vote.
When she was first elected head of the SPD two years ago, Esken received 75.9 percent. At that time, Norbert Walter-Borjans had achieved 89.2 percent as co-party leader. Before his election, Klingbeil said to the approximately 600 delegates: “We have unleashed this country after 16 years, from the must of the conservatives.”
He recalled the long past and long low polls of the SPD. “We were written off, we were pitied,” he said. “But we never gave up, never, at no point in time.” The victory in the Bundestag election is a great opportunity to shape a “social democratic decade”.
Esken said: “We will change this country, we will strengthen it, and we will make it more just.” Social democracy must become a think tank for questions about the future. At the same time Esken was combative and confident about the four state elections in the coming year.
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In the afternoon, the party congress wanted to elect the other leadership team of the SPD. Former Juso boss and current SPD vice-president Kevin Kühnert (32) has been proposed as the new general secretary. After the election of Olaf Scholz as Federal Chancellor and the assumption of office of the ministers, the SPD, as a party, is finalizing its personnel list for the start of the joint government with the Greens and the FDP.
Walter-Borjans withdraws
The change in the party leadership became necessary because Walter-Borjans is withdrawing. Walter-Borjans and Esken were elected to the top of the SPD in 2019 after an elaborate candidate search, after the then party leader Andrea Nahles resigned. Now Walter-Borjans said: “The SPD, dear comrades, is back.”
The SPD vice chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalian SPD state, Thomas Kutschaty, is to take over the post of SPD vice-president that becomes vacant with Kühnert’s move to general secretary. The previous incumbents, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, the new Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz as well as Anke Rehlinger and Serpil Midyatli are nominated as further party vice-holders.
The SPD party congress had been shortened from the originally planned three days to one day due to the ongoing corona pandemic. Only a week ago, the Social Democrats approved the coalition agreement at a hybrid party congress.
In addition to the personal details, the SPD also wanted to prepare for its role as the new chancellor party in terms of content. The Social Democrats attach great importance to their own content profile.
Kühnert made it clear that the SPD also wanted to pursue goals that did not make it into the coalition agreement. This included a pension system for all workers, a citizens’ insurance and an “adequate taxation” of huge assets, said Kühnert of the “taz” (weekend). “That’s not folklore for election campaigns.”
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