Berlin Just a few months ago, SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz spoke out in favor of his former rivals Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans remaining party leaders after the federal election. “Yes, I think that’s very good,” he said at the time. Now it turns out differently.
It is still unclear how the SPD will position itself at the top in the future. If Walter-Borjans has his way, then the future party leadership does not belong to the new federal government. “A member of the government as a party leader is necessarily always a piece of government spokesman,” he said. The previous division of labor – party chairmanship on the one hand and government office on the other – has proven its worth. That would mean that Scholz would be out of the question as Chancellor of a traffic light coalition for the successor.
Anyway, Scholz has no ambitions for the party chairmanship, as it is called in the SPD. He had ruled that out before the general election. When asked whether he would aim for party chairmanship in the event of an election victory, he said on Deutschlandfunk in August: “No, I do not consider that necessary, nor do I intend to do that”.
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The SPD politician Ralf Stegner also advocates separating party and government offices in the future. Together with Gesine Schwan, with whom he had applied for the SPD chairmanship two years ago, “voted for the party leadership to support its own federal government in solidarity, but not to belong to it,” Stegner told the Handelsblatt. He still thinks that’s right. “It strengthens the orientation function of the social democratic party leadership that is necessary over the long term.”
Lars Klingbeil as SPD co-leader?
Esken, who has already been traded for a ministerial office, could then not join the cabinet. The digital expert Esken has not yet publicly stated whether she would like to become head of the SPD again. All that has been handed down to us so far is her wish, expressed a few months ago, to keep the party chairmanship. “For me, I can say that I still have an agenda ahead of me,” she told the “Rheinische Post”.
Lars Klingbeil’s name has been around for a long time. The SPD general secretary and election campaign manager is also traded for a ministerial office – for example for the defense or interior department. But many also trust him to lead the party, probably also because the SPD managed to win the election with its campaign. Klingbeil is also internally praised for keeping the SPD leaders together in turbulent times.
In his almost four years as general secretary, he served no fewer than eight SPD chairmen. But Klingbeil can also score points with the voters. With 47.6 percent, Klingbeil got the second best first vote result of all SPD candidates in his constituency.
The candidate for chancellor has refused the post of SPD leader.
(Photo: dpa)
Walter-Borjans has been leading the party together with Esken since December 2019. Before that, both had prevailed in a membership decision as critics of the grand coalition – against Scholz and his co-candidate Klara Geywitz.
With Walter-Borjans and Esken at the top, the SPD was able to free itself from its long-term polls in the Bundestag election year. This is remarkable insofar as in the twelve years in which the Social Democrats co-ruled alongside Angela Merkel, the party’s core brand seemed to have melted away. After its 20.5 percent debacle in the 2017 federal election, the SPD barely came out above 15 percent in polls for three years.
Even earlier this year, things weren’t looking particularly good for the party. Hardly anyone gave the SPD and Scholz a real chance of success in the federal election – until the polls suddenly went up in August.
Expert: SPD is facing a long renewal process
One explanation for this could be that the political competition, Armin Laschet (CDU) and Annalena Baerbock (Greens), made mistakes – and Scholz did not. On the other hand, the SPD appeared more united than ever. “We have the unity, that is the decisive factor that has made us strong,” said Walter Borjans on the evening after the general election.
Walter-Borjans announces withdrawal from the top of the SPD
Keeping the party closed is also credited internally to Walter-Borjans as a great merit. “With his calm, his experience and his affection, the party was able to become a very closed formation,” said SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. “He did the SPD very well.”
The future SPD leadership still has the real test ahead of them. The election success does not mean “that the SPD has been put on a course that will lead to it being the winner again in future elections,” said the Berlin political scientist Gero Neugebauer to the Handelsblatt. “In this respect, I rate Walter-Borjans’ announcement as the result of the realization that the SPD is facing a long-term process of renewal that should be led by a younger person with a longer-term perspective who will only assume the party office.”
The future political agenda of the SPD is currently also being determined in the negotiations on a traffic light coalition with the FDP and the Greens. “In the coming weeks we will do everything in the coalition negotiations to create a good basis for the federal government for the next four years,” said parliamentary group leader Mützenich. And with a view to Walter-Borjans’ role in the traffic light talks, he added that, of course, he would “play a decisive role and set many important priorities for the future with his expertise”.
More: Follow the current developments after the federal election in our news blog.