SPD candidacy for chancellor: K-Question: Scholz answers evasively

In an interview, Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave an evasive answer to the question of whether he could imagine reconsidering his candidacy for chancellor under certain circumstances. “Well, the circumstances of the next election are pretty clear,” he simply told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. When asked what it would be like if the poll numbers worsened, he added: “The reliability of such surveys is manageable, as the last federal election showed, even if some people quickly forgot that. We have to rely on cohesion – and not on an opposition in our society.”

Before the last federal election, Scholz and the SPD were up to 16 percentage points behind the Union two and a half months before the election. A laugh from Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet in the flood area changed the mood. On September 26th, the SPD won against the Union by 25.7 to 24.1 percent. Scholz became chancellor of the first traffic light coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP at the federal level, which collapsed last week after almost three years. Now, exactly 100 days before the election, the SPD is 16 to 18 percentage points behind the Union in third place in the polls – still behind the AfD.

New elections will take place on February 23rd. Scholz had already declared in the summer that he would like to run as a candidate for chancellor again. But the party executive has not yet nominated him. After the traffic light went out, there is a debate in the SPD as to whether Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who is much more popular in the polls, is the more promising candidate. A decision from the party leadership is expected at a so-called “election victory conference” on November 30th.