Pistorius or Scholz? the leadership failure of the SPD

Anyone who has such friends no longer needs enemies. This saying currently applies more to no party than to the SPD. For days she has been tangled up in an undignified tussle over the question of who should lead her in the early federal elections.

Statements are issued that are formulated in the most confusing way possible. And they are published while the Chancellor is abroad and is therefore particularly vulnerable.

Meanwhile, the other side is spreading the word that Boris Pistorius can actually “only” do defense and a bit of domestic policy, not enough for a candidate for chancellor. Or that one should fear a “Martin Schulz effect” with him. Started as a poll winner, ended as an election loser.

And the party leadership? Supports the incumbent Chancellor with lip service without committing to a board decision. Or just stay silent.

What the base wants is relatively clear: Many people here are getting feedback from neighbors, colleagues and friends that Olaf Scholz has not met the expectations placed on his government and that they do not want him to be a candidate for Chancellor again. The situation is different with Boris Pistorius, who has managed to stay out of the traffic light dispute and has continued to be the darling of the polls since he took office.

The picture at the top is less clear. In addition to vague commitments to Scholz, such as that of Secretary General Matthias Miersch, hesitation can be observed among many. You hold your finger in the wind to check where it is blowing the strongest. Or you are torn like parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, actually a Scholz loyalist and not a Pistorius fan, but at the same time aware of his responsibility for a parliamentary group that, according to surveys, could lose more than 100 seats with a candidate Scholz.

However, leadership is not visible at the moment. Not with Olaf Scholz, whose strength always lay in the fact that he pretended to be the tamer of the traffic light circus and who failed spectacularly in the end. And not with the SPD leadership, which failed to decide quickly and clearly on a candidate and then to get everyone to swear by this decision.

In this way, it leaves room for this or that opinion from within its own ranks and for the image of a party that is currently dismantling itself instead of convincing potential voters.

This is reminiscent of the spectacle that the Union put on before the last federal election in 2021. Even then, the K question remained unresolved for a long time, which led to Markus Söder taking his chance to attack the “natural” candidate, CDU party leader Armin Laschet.

After weeks of wrangling, the party leadership decided to take a snap action against the mood among the grassroots. The rest is history: the ailing Laschet made a mistake, the Union missed the guaranteed entry into the Chancellery.

If the SPD still wants to have the slightest chance, then its leadership must now honestly ask itself with whom, taking all factors into account, it has the best chance of at least reducing the gap to the Union. Vassal loyalty and misunderstood loyalty should not cloud this analysis. And then the SPD should decide quickly and rally behind the candidate.

The moment for this seems almost missed. If he doesn’t come quickly now, the SPD will tear itself into the abyss in the federal election.