Kevin Kühnert: A shock is going through the SPD – what happens next

Then everything happens very quickly. When Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken entered the atrium of the Willy Brandt House on Monday afternoon, the shocking news had only happened a little more than an hour ago. The SPD party leaders appear touched. They have talking notes with them that they hold on to. Her statement at the party headquarters in Berlin lasted less than five minutes and no questions were allowed. Then it’s back to work. There is a lot to discuss.

Kevin Kühnert, 35, resigns as SPD general secretary. He does not want to run again in the next federal election. This is what it says in a personal letter from Kühnert to party members and friends, which unexpectedly reached their email inboxes at 1:37 p.m. “See you!”, signed: Kevin.

It is the temporary and abrupt end of a steep political career. A shock for the Social Democrats. What’s next? What does this mean for the party, which is already in favor and has shrunk to 15 to 17 percent in the polls? And what about the upcoming federal election campaign?

Kevin Kühnert, our friend

A lot is uncertain this Monday, and the SPD chairmen Klingbeil and Esken – who were inaugurated a few days ago – are correspondingly short.

“We know how demanding the political business is, how exhausting it is,” says Klingbeil in a shaky voice into the television microphones. “Politics isn’t everything.” His co-boss Esken received the decision “with dismay” and the greatest respect.

Esken says her path to the top of the party, as well as her work in this position, was characterized by a “very, very close and very trusting” collaboration with Kühnert. Sounds like Stanze, but it’s a fact: in 2019, with the active support of the Jusos, of which Kühnert was chairman at the time, she was surprisingly elected to the first SPD dual leadership. Now she wishes him the “necessary rest” so that he can get well again. Both SPD chairmen speak of Kühnert as their friend.

Many comrades were taken by surprise by Kühnert’s resignation, and even the large party executive committee was only informed shortly before the letter was sent. Kühnert says he is retiring for health reasons star-Information it is mental health reasons.

“I need the energy that is necessary for my office and an election campaign in the foreseeable future in order to get healthy again,” writes Kühnert. He bears responsibility for himself and for the SPD. “By taking full care of my health now, I believe I can best meet my dual responsibilities.”

There is talk of a loss in the SPD, a gap that will be created by Kühnert, after all, he is one of the brightest minds in the party apparatus. Even critics express respect for him, but they can’t resist taking a dig: He may have a talent for rhetoric, but he didn’t exactly stand out as a campaign manager.

First doubts about the high flyer

After the historic defeat in the European elections, his first nationwide campaign as Secretary General, Kühnert in particular was held responsible for the debacle. The Chancellor, who had a big poster, didn’t move and his peace election campaign fizzled out. More than two million Social Democratic voters migrated to the non-voter camp, and hundreds of thousands more to the populists of the left and right. Kühnert had made some unpleasant mishaps in the heat of the moment.

In the debate about the xenophobic Sylt slogans, the SPD published a posting: “Germany for the Germans,” it read in large letters, “who defend our democracy” was written underneath in much smaller font. Very unfortunate. The post disappeared, but the damage to its image remained. According to the story in the party, Kühnert personally approved the posting. He is said to have expressed contrition about this in the executive committee shortly before the election.

Is he the right person to manage a federal election campaign? To turn things around again, to set the right accents at the right time? This question was also wafting through the corridors of the capital after the rather poor results in the state elections in East Germany.

But the fact that so many eyes have turned to Kühnert, sometimes with disappointment, is also due to the high expectations that were projected onto him. Clear rhetoric is one thing, organization is another – and perhaps much more important in this job. As Juso boss, Kühnert did not shy away from conflict, pointed things out, denounced them – in doing so he drove the grand coalition ahead of him, not least his own party. Fits the profile of a general secretary perfectly. Actually. But when he was elected to office in 2021, Kühnert had to disarm rhetorically and suddenly change course Chancellor’s Party defend – hard political work for someone who had always played attack.

With his resignation as general secretary, there is now additional unrest in a party that appears disoriented and highly nervous and in which there is widespread concern that it will be pulverized in the next federal election. Because things haven’t looked good for the SPD for a long time. So little that it would take at least a second miracle to save Olaf Scholz as Chancellor. At the weekend, Kühnert demanded in an interview with “Spiegel”: “Each of us must and will surpass ourselves in this campaign, including the Chancellor.”

That remains true. It’s just that Kühnert had probably already outgrown himself. More than would have been good for his health.

In the interview he himself had ruled out resigning, at least for political reasons. Kühnert was asked why the SPD leadership was not following the Greens’ example and clearing the way for a new beginning. Answer: “For an obvious reason: the work of the SPD in the coalition is rated significantly better than that of our coalition partners. That doesn’t mean at all that everything is good. But we have implemented most of our election promises and work reliably and in a compromise-oriented manner.” said Kühnert. In addition, internally we are still a well-coordinated team that pulls together and makes joint decisions.

And now?

Kühnert is now on sick leave, the first appointments have already been canceled, for example his appearance at the future congress of the party-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation on Tuesday. Attention will then turn back to the Willy Brandt House anyway.

This Monday evening, first the presidium and then the party executive committee will meet for a meeting. The board will make a proposal for Kühnert’s successor as general secretary, which will then be announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. On Monday evening, the name for the successor was already leaking out: .

A quick solution, but initially a provisional one: According to reports, Kühnert’s successor should be recruited from the party executive committee – Miersch is a member here – in order to be able to appoint him quickly. Otherwise a party conference would be necessary to approve the decision.

The next regular federal party conference of the SPD, at which all offices are elected, will not take place until December 2025. And there are still a few months until the special party conference in the summer shortly before the federal election, at which Scholz will be officially named candidate for chancellor. It is unlikely that the SPD will call an extraordinary party conference to elect a new general secretary.

There are turbulent weeks and months ahead for the SPD, one way or another. Budget, pensions, adherence to collective bargaining agreements – there is a threat of new discord everywhere in the rowdy traffic light coalition. So it doesn’t get any easier for the comrades who have made it.

Kevin Kühnert writes it in his letter; many people may have missed his remarkably clear lines despite all the excitement surrounding his withdrawal. “The coming election is more open than many people want to believe today,” writes Kühnert. However, the opportunities for the SPD do not come from waiting, but solely from taking action. “In the next few months, enormous efforts will have to be made to catch up with a deficit that is reflected in both low poll numbers and low self-confidence.” The expectations of the SPD are huge.

Plain text, Kühnert can do that. Only his strength has been used up for now.