Olaf Scholz candidacy: SPD leaders desperately call for unity

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil warns his party against a debate about Olaf Scholz’s candidacy for chancellor. “Olaf Scholz is the Chancellor. And everyone who bears responsibility in the SPD has made it clear in the last few days that we stand behind him,” said Klingbeil on the sidelines of an SPD event in Essen. It is now important for the SPD “that we deal with the content of the federal election campaign, but not discuss personnel.”

Nevertheless, there are more and more voices in the SPD who are openly in favor of Defense Minister Boris Pistorius running for chancellor. According to “Spiegel” information, in addition to a number of local and state politicians, several SPD members of the Bundestag are now also advocating for it. The report states that MP Joe Weingarten from Rhineland-Palatinate was particularly critical at a meeting of the more conservative Seeheimer Circle: Scholz was “bottomed out” by the people in the country.

Weingarten declined to comment on the report. However, he emphasized that “I sincerely hope that the SPD leadership and all those responsible will find a common and quick answer to lead us out of the serious crisis and the low polls in which we find ourselves.”

With a view to the candidate debate, Klingbeil demanded that the party’s focus should be different: “There is a polarization between Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz. These are fundamental opposites.” The question is whether politics should be made for higher earners or for nursing staff, educators and construction workers. “We will now enter into this dispute,” said the SPD leader. The SPD recently only achieved values ​​of around 16 percent in surveys, while the Union is clearly ahead with survey values ​​of around 32 percent.

Despite the warnings from the party leadership, the pressure is growing to go into the election campaign with the much more popular Pistorius. More and more grassroots groups are now calling loudly for a replacement. Otherwise there is a risk of a dramatic defeat in the federal election, recently warned the Bochum sub-district – part of the influential NRW SPD.

The mood in the party clearly speaks for a change, said sub-district leader Serdar Yüksel star. “If you surveyed the members of the SPD, 80 percent would be for Pistorius.” Whether Scholz runs again is not just his personal decision, said Yüksel. “The question now is whether the SPD will survive.”

For the party leadership, Scholz has so far been considered a set candidate – SPD leaders Klingbeil and Saskia Esken, as well as General Secretary Matthias Miersch, have repeatedly asserted this in the last few days. Scholz himself has already made it clear that he wants to run and remain chancellor. It is almost impossible for the party leadership to nominate another candidate against his will. In order to make a change, the 66-year-old would probably have to withdraw himself.

In an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Scholz himself only answered evasively when asked whether he could imagine reconsidering his candidacy under certain circumstances. “Well, the circumstances of the next election are pretty clear,” he said. 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.”

After the breakup of the coalition, the SPD no longer has much time to nominate its candidate for chancellor. The election is scheduled for February 23rd – and the campaigns are usually very tailored to the candidate. A decision from the party leadership is expected at a so-called election victory conference on November 30th. A party conference is scheduled for January 11th, at which the personnel could then be confirmed.