Parties: Mützenich wants to remain SPD faction leader

Rolf Mützenich wants to remain chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag for another two years. The 64-year-old announced in a parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday that he wanted to run again for the post in September. He had “continued to offer something” to his faction, said Mützenich in Die Zeit, explaining the decision. This is “to promote the cohesion of the parliamentary group and to support the course of a social-democratic government and to influence it with others”. A counter-candidate is not expected.

Last year there was speculation that Mützenich could resign from his post before the end of the two-year electoral term. He then said that he was “not tired of office at all”. At that time, however, he had not yet committed himself to running for another two years.

So far, the deputy faction leaders Matthias Miersch and Dirk Wiese have been traded as possible successors to Mützenich. The energy and environmental expert Miersch belongs like Mützenich to the left wing of the parliamentary group. Wiese, who is responsible for the areas of internal affairs, law and consumer protection, among other things, is spokesman for the conservative Seeheimer Kreis.

Still up to date?

Miersch has recently pledged his support for a renewed candidacy. “He will always have my full support,” he told the “Rheinische Post”. Miersch pointed out that he was allowed to work on the “heating law, which is very important for society”. “And I would be happy to continue to do so in the role of deputy group leader, with Rolf Mützenich at the head of the group.”

Mützenich told “Zeit” that he keeps thinking about whether he is still “capable and up to date” in order to be able to continue. He made that up with himself. But he also obtained “opinions and advice from confidants and companions”. “These include, above all, Matthias Miersch, whose ideas and work I really appreciate.”

After the 2021 federal elections, Mützenich was also being considered for the post of speaker of the parliament, but then let his parliamentary colleague Bärbel Bas go first because otherwise the three highest state offices would have been occupied by men. With the start of the Ukraine war and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s “Zeitenwende” speech, speculation about his future as parliamentary group leader began. Mützenich, who has advocated disarmament for decades and had called for the withdrawal of US nuclear bombs from Germany during the election campaign, now had to organize the approval of the 100 billion program to upgrade the Bundeswehr.

With his announcement of a renewed candidacy, he has now created clarity. The election is scheduled to take place in September shortly after the parliamentary summer recess.