Saskia Esken occurs – a problem of the SPD remains

Saskia Esken looks at the amount that she donates standing. There is a “everything good” over her lips when Lars Klingbeil sagits to her. Now it’s over, done. Officially. But is everything also good?

After five and a half years at the top, Esken was officially adopted as chairman at the SPD party conference. The “honor of my life,” says Esken. Finally, it should have been a very special ordeal.

The malice, the ridicule: It had become lonely around Saskia Esken, who had been the first SPD chairman in 2019 by the grassroots to a double lead, and whose public effect was repeatedly commented critically by many comrades. First behind the scenes, then public.

Some of her critics are also likely to be in the “City Cube” in Berlin, where the SPD holds its federal party conference this weekend and now claps for them. Dealing with the now former SPD chairman, many in the party, especially at the base, sometimes irritated. And torn wounds that come to light at the party congress.

Esken is at the heart with both hands before starting her farewell speech on Saturday morning. She will only speak for 15 minutes as if she wanted to keep it short and painless.

She recalls how she was strangled with her after her election five and a half years ago, and claims that he had stabilized the comrades in the grand coalition after exhausting years. “We did the turnaround,” says Esken. She waives self -criticism. Like the Chancellor a. D. will be checked. After all, large parts of the SPD had not saved with attacks against them.

The outsider, who once challenged the establishment, was recently included – and after the Bundestag election in 2025, the lightning rod for the historical defeat.

For months, names about the corridors in political Berlin were whispered, who could follow ESKEN: Freestrifest in performance, more popular in the party, more successful in the constituency. This was followed by dirt, such as a punctured vacation trip during the coalition negotiations. Finally, the general secretary in her home association Baden-Württemberg cited that Esken was not one of the top candidates for the SPD cabinet. And many celebrities were silent.

One day before the signing of the black and red coalition agreement, Esken suddenly declared her retreat. A post in the black and red cabinet was denied her, she is now heading the Education and Family Committee in the Bundestag. A consolation price. Esken had dared to do so, as a party leader, also claimed it. Like Klingbeil. But the internal pressure was apparently too great.

In her short speech, Esken does not deal with any syllable, everyone knows anyway. Already at the beginning of the three -day party congress on Friday, the past, inglorious weeks had played a role. Even the party leaders could not spare them in their application speeches.

The public criticism that politics must endure “often went beyond the justified extent,” says Lars Klingbeil, once Esken’s general secretary. From the point of view of his critics, Klingbeil also had the debate about Esken run for far too long and did not try to contest vigorously enough.

Bärbel Bas, Esken’s successor, asked herself with a view to her chair candidate: “Do you want to do this to yourself?” So far, the SPD has had two women as chairwoman: Saskia Esken and Andrea Nahles. Both have withdrawn from the office with “mixed feelings”, says Bas emphasizes ambiguously. Dealing with them was “not a highlight”.

There is: The SPD did not learn from its mistakes, which she once did at Andrea Nahles’s dismantling, and sometimes repeats them at ESKE.

But Esken is conciliatory on the party congress stage. She thanks Olaf Scholz. She thanks the Jusos. She thanks the party, the employees in the Willy-Brandt-Haus and the “wonderful” Bärbel Bas, to which she now handed over the baton. BAS will be a “great” party leader, Esken believes. Lars Klingbeil, her long-time co-chair, she thanks: “Thank you for your trust, thank you for your collaboration and good luck.” One was not always of the same opinion, but always the common conviction: the SPD could only be strong if it lives and hold together in its diversity. The two chairpersons lived the difference, no doubt.

The fact that the double-tip constellation also has disadvantages has become clear in the Klingbeil-Esch axis. Klingbeil was the one who has given the direction and tore the topics that can be used to score: with the struggle for industrial workplaces, security policy. Esken could hardly make a stitch with education and digital, where there is rarely reporting success. Eskens Malus was also Klingbeil’s bonus. The question of who is better off by both of them always swings with a double tip.

Now it is due to the double leadership of Klingbeil/BAS to set up the SPD again – and heal wounds that have arisen in the past few months. This was also shown by the election result of the chairpersons. The day before, BAS was elected as a new SPD leader with a fabulous 95 percent, while Klingbeil was punished with 64.9 percent.

In the end, Esken is presented with a work of art that Willy Brandt shows. Klingbeil recognizes Esken’s merits, emphasized that he is proud “that I have been able to go this long distance with you so far”. This is not over yet, the sequel follows elsewhere. Bärbel BAS speaks nothing more in the party convention microphone. Apparently at the request of Esken, who works as if she wanted to keep the official part as close as possible.