Bundestag election: Pistorius wants to score points: we have to “stretch ourselves to the ceiling”

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has called on his party to unite in view of the upcoming federal election. To ensure electoral success, he advises a clear stance on security issues and a focus on industrial and economic policy. “It is essential for the SPD, for its original core electorate,” Pistorius told the German Press Agency in Berlin.

“It goes without saying that the current poll numbers don’t make anyone in the SPD happy. I’m not happy with 15 or 16 percent either. We have to analyze what the cause of this is,” said Pistorius in the dpa interview, which took place shortly before Was led from the traffic light coalition. There is more than one reason for this.

He cites the emergence of populist parties, a “tattered party landscape” and crisis fatigue among many people “who have doubts as to whether we can overcome the multiple crises.”

Warning about the BSW and those who understand Putin

Pistorius warns against collaboration with the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), as the SPD in Brandenburg is striving for. “The BSW stands neither for our ties to the West nor for NATO membership. It denies that we have to be able to protect and defend ourselves,” says Pistorius.

The BSW understands Russian President Vladimir Putin and therefore the claim that NATO pressured Russia and thereby triggered the war in the first place. It is against supporting Ukraine, which defends its freedom and sovereignty and, last but not least, international law. Pistorius: “So it goes against everything that the majority of Social Democrats and the majority in Germany consider to be right.”

Pistorius is Germany’s most popular politician

The Lower Saxony took over the ministry from the office of the State Interior Minister in Hanover at the beginning of last year. The Union was described as a “cast from the B team”.

Pistorius quickly made it to first place in approval ratings. Only again on Friday: According to a Forsa survey, the majority of Germans want Pistorius to be the SPD candidate for chancellor in the early elections (57 percent). In the survey, however, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (also SPD) only got 13 percent.

“I did not run to become the most popular politician. It would be better for others to judge how these values ​​come about. And yes, I am happy about the approval and am not free from vanity. It would be dishonest to try to claim otherwise,” says Pistorius. He is also pleased that his hometown of Osnabrück wants to award him the Justus Möser Medal as its highest award.

Pistorius is repeatedly referred to as a reserve candidate for chancellor. He himself avoids the topic and always emphasizes his loyalty to the Chancellor when asked. There is also a decision.

“There are no calls,” says Pistorius

Question: Have you actually received calls? “No,” replies Pistorius. Do you sleep with the window open? “Just for the fresh air. There are no shouts.”

He would also like to be defense minister again in a future government, “because I still have a lot planned.” “We are restructuring the Bundeswehr so ​​that it can meet the requirements of the new threat situation in Europe,” he said. “Despite all the challenges, I can rely on a strong team with whom I have built up a very good relationship.”

If the SPD nominates him, he wants to run in the City of Hanover II constituency and fight for a mandate. In that case, he would succeed a social democratic veteran there. Kurt Schumacher and Erich Ollenhauer – both chairmen in the post-war period – had this constituency 42. Also Helmut Rohde, who was in the cabinet of Willy Brandt and later Helmut Schmidt.

Pistorius assumes that there is more in it for the SPD. However, the federal election in 2021 showed that election surveys are not elections. “For months we were at 15 percent in surveys. In the end we were the clear election winners. Or in 2005: Back then we reduced a 20 percentage point gap to the Union to one percentage point within three months,” said Pistorius. The mood between now and the next federal election could still change significantly.

Pistorius said: “I believe that we can achieve a result like 2021 again. But to do that we have to stretch ourselves to the ceiling. We have to be clear about what we want and act as a united party.”

In response to a question, he expressed his conviction: “Yes, you can win back some of the voters from the AfD – with a serious, pragmatic industrial and economic policy that is based on reality.” Pistorius welcomes the fact that Lars Klingbeil and Olaf Scholz are “addressing this issue very clearly”.

Populists allow themselves to be harnessed to Putin’s cart

He perceives populist and extremist movements in Germany that are doing Putin’s business and are being harnessed to his cart. “They adopt Putin’s argument and place one-sided expectations on us, on the government – for example that we should disarm while Putin continues to arm himself massively,” says Pistorius. Or there is a demand “that peace must be brought about in Ukraine – with a belligerent Russia that doesn’t want to negotiate peace at all.”

“We have to be careful, including in the SPD, that we don’t allow ourselves to be confused by these slogans,” warns Pistorius. The SPD is a peace party that stands for détente. “Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and others knew that one can only negotiate on equal terms about peace and peaceful coexistence if this happens from a position of strength. Unfortunately, this insight has been partially lost. Some may be afraid of the reaction of the Voters. Others may simply deny reality. But a problem doesn’t get smaller if you ignore it. It gets bigger.”