The SPD has elected Kevin Kühnert as SPD general secretary for another two years. At the federal party conference in Berlin, the 34-year-old received 92.55 percent of the votes.
The SPD has elected Kevin Kühnert as SPD general secretary for another two years. At the federal party conference in Berlin on Friday, the 34-year-old received 92.55 percent of the votes. In 2021, in his first election, he only received 77.8 percent. It is the third best result in the election of an SPD general secretary since the office was introduced in 1999. Only Franz Müntefering in 1999 and Katarina Barley in 2015 performed better. Current Chancellor Olaf Scholz achieved the worst result in 2003 with 52.6 percent.
Kühnert is expected to lead the party into the next federal election in 2025 together with party leaders Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken. The dual leadership had already been confirmed in office before Kühnert.
Kevin Kühnert calls for mutual support
Before his election, Kühnert called on the SPD to pull together to get out of the polls. “We will win, but not by ourselves, but only if we pull ourselves together and get out of this hole together,” he said. The SPD became the strongest party in the 2021 federal election with 25.7 percent. In the surveys it is now only between 14 and 17 percent.
For years, Kevin Kühnert was considered the SPD’s top troublemaker. He was the face of the No-GroKo campaign in 2018 and, as Juso boss, wanted to prevent a government made up of the Union and the SPD. In the election for the SPD chairmanship in 2019, he supported the left-wing duo of Esken and her competitor Norbert Walter-Borjans – together they won. Kühnert was then elected party vice-president and, after winning the 2021 federal election, general secretary.
The Berlin native won his constituency directly in the federal election and entered parliament for the first time. Kühnert once described the post of SPD general secretary as a dream job.
Hubertus Heil with the best result for a vice
Financial politician Achim Post from North Rhine-Westphalia was newly elected to the senior management team on Friday. In the election of the deputy chairwoman on Friday at the federal party conference in Berlin, he received 78.2 percent of the votes. Post thus replaces Thomas Kutschaty, who failed badly as the top candidate in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia last year and did not run again.
The 64-year-old Post was deputy federal manager of the SPD from 2002 to 2012 and then general secretary of the European Social Democratic Party. He has been SPD state leader in North Rhine-Westphalia since August. Post is also the SPD parliamentary group vice-president in the Bundestag.
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil achieved the best result in the election of deputy SPD chairwoman with 96.6 percent of the vote. In 2021 he received 88.6 percent of the votes. Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger was confirmed with 95.5 percent of the votes (2021: 90.7 percent), Schleswig-Holstein state chairwoman Serpil Midyatli with 79.3 percent (2021: 85.7 percent) and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz with 74, 6 percent (2021: 81 percent).
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
