Lars Klingbeil: The SPD boss is faced with a tear test

He would like to, but: “Hats look totally stupid for me.” The knitting hat, embroidered with the slaughter cry of the SPD links, therefore does not pull himself over the head. The co-party leader assures that this has nothing to do with the saying: “Tax the Rich”, taxes the rich. On the other hand, Klingbeil does not want to endanger coalition peace with a fashionable statement that cries after redistribution.

He could use the hat well on this Tuesday evening in Berlin-Mitte, the left wing of the SPD parliamentary group invited to the summer festival. There are autumnal autumn. And Klingbeil forgot his jacket. Political weather conditions are also not very considerate of him.

The SPD ranks with 13 poll percentages, is not even half as strong as the AfD. In the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, once a red heartland, the Social Democrats fell for another record low. Despite the 500 billion special assets for the infrastructure. Despite “construction turbo”. Despite securing the pension level. It doesn’t run for the comrades.

The party looks at a loss, desperate. Klingbeil, who, as party leader and SPD power center, has to give orientation in the government, also seems to be stunned. “We have to make it clear that we feel like designing this country with the basic values ​​we have,” he conjures up his people at the summer festival. “This is not possible if we stop as a SPD when we are limp. If we don’t exactly convey that we are in the mood for politics.”

His words should motivate; A counterpart that many comrades strike: The Union determines the course, the SPD trots afterwards. But it is also an urgent request, almost a call for help: a little more enthusiasm, enjoyed! If not us, who then? But a good atmosphere cannot be prescribed, it has to grown out of conviction – started at the top. Only who is actually there: the party leader, the Vice Chancellor or Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil?

Even four and a half months after the start of the black and red coalition, Klingbeil seems to be looking for the right mode in his triple role. For the SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil, this could now become a sample. Although he would have to concentrate on a deeply unsettled party, he cannot neglect his government offices without endangering the processes in the coalition. This creates desires, in doubt disappointments – someone always has to put back.

On Tuesday morning in the Bundestag, Vice -Chancellor Klingbeil was particularly possible – who sworn in the citizens when the budget was introduced for 2026, which would “die away a lot”. Later in the evening, the fighting SPD leader appeared at the summer party of the party left-the cuts on the welfare state made higher taxes for rich and very well earned. On Wednesday afternoon the Finance Minister Klingbeil can be seen, who spoke at the Jacques Delors Center in Berlin on the European dimension of German Financial and Investment Policy.

Klingbeil has to play three roles, withstand a constant balancing act between cabinet discipline, coalition peace and party work, it is best to be credible. In this way, the simultaneity of the tasks and offices provokes the flight into the routine refugees of positions and punches. Some in the party considered the experimental arrangement to be daring from the start. There is not much time to sharpen profile and for programmatic visions that spark new enthusiasm in the SPD with the workload. Many consider this to be necessary after the historical defeat in the Bundestag election.

Especially since the role as finance minister does not necessarily pay the SPD chairman. It is a powerful department, but also a very technical, shaped by cool numbers and complicated facts that are difficult to explain. Klingbeil himself admits that the 500 billion euros for the infrastructure in the country is an “abstract sum”, the concrete benefits of which have to be communicated more.

In addition, the Klingbeil’s role-playing game is made more difficult by the fact that even the role of the finance minister disintegrates into two characters: On the one hand, Klingbeil wants to understand the office as “Minister of Investment”, but the image is countered by the Sparkin Minister, which he will soon have to give with a view to the 30 billion gap in the household in 2027.

Now the “autumn of the reforms” starts, the welfare state is to be subjected to a fundamental update – sensitive cuts are not excluded. Does Klingbeil have the strength to sell his party painful compromises? His authority as a party chairman has already suffered, at the Federal Party Congress he was punished for his power policy with an election result of 65 percent.

The fact that Klingbeil now regularly lifts the SPD heart topic to take the richest of the rich more responsibility should keep your own people happy. And make possible cuts easier to digest. Paint, shorten and save – no vocabulary that make red hearts beat faster, especially not in a super election year. In 2026, voted in four federal states, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Rhineland-Palatinate, the SPD even provides the prime ministers. According to current surveys, there is a risk of loss of the state chancellery.

Political hard work is still likely to be available on Klingbeil. The “most important news” to the SPD links is, he jokes at the summer festival on Tuesday evening that it could be criticized further. An allusion to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who recently warned in the Union faction meeting, to be less criticized for his vice. “I’m not sensitive,” Klingbeil assures.