SPD candidacy for chancellor: Juso boss accuses party leadership of “shit show” at K-frage

The Jusos responded to the tough and controversial debate about the SPD candidacy for chancellor with sharp criticism of the party leadership. At the start of the youth association’s federal congress in Halle an der Saale, Juso boss Philipp Türmer denied the leadership ability of party leaders Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil. “It can’t go on like this. What a shit show it has actually been in the last few weeks,” he said to the SPD leadership, to applause from the 300 delegates.

Discussions are important, but they must be “properly moderated and guided”. “And dear Saskia, dear Lars: Unfortunately, at no point in the last few weeks did I have the impression that you had control over this process or the control of the discourse over the party or even a clear plan.”

Starting situation now “much more difficult”

The party’s starting position was not easy even before the candidate debate. “But now it has become even more difficult,” said Türmer. After the coalition break and the new election decision, the party leadership decided not to immediately nominate Chancellor Olaf Scholz as candidate for chancellor. This has led to a debate over the past two weeks about replacing the much more popular Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. It was only ended on Thursday when Pistorius renounced his candidacy. On Monday, the board wants to nominate Scholz as candidate for chancellor. “To be honest: yesterday’s result could have been achieved two weeks ago,” said Türmer.

The Juso boss did not comment on the question of whether Scholz or Pistorius was the better candidate. “None of you joined this party because of Boris or Olaf,” he said to the Jusos. Instead of clearly supporting Scholz, Türmer called for everything to be done to prevent a CDU chancellor, Friedrich Merz. We must prevent “this neoliberal guy from becoming chancellor.”

Klingbeil does not want to be Basta party leader

The Jusos make up almost a quarter of the members of the Bundestag. With Türmer’s harsh words, the candidate debate that got out of hand now has repercussions. After the decision in favor of Scholz, Klingbeil called for a united front in the election campaign: “If the SPD can do something, then that is fighting,” he said at a municipal congress in Berlin. He defended his approach to the K question. Of course there has to be discussion within the party. “I’m a party leader who doesn’t just say basta (…), but I also want to listen to the party, I also want to take seriously what is being discussed.”

On Saturday, party leader Esken, general secretary Matthias Miersch and deputy party leader and labor minister Hubertus Heil are expected at the Juso congress in Halle.

Two birthdays on election day: “So it has to go well”

Scholz also gave his first speech after the K question had been clarified at the municipal congress in Berlin in front of a good 100 participants. In it he reiterated his no to the delivery of the Taurus cruise missile to Ukraine, called for a reform of the debt brake and for more affordable housing. He didn’t say a word about the quarrels surrounding the decision about the candidacy for chancellor.

The party conference on January 11th has the last word, where the party will line up for the election on February 23rd. “On this date we want to show what we stand for and how we can continue to lead this country,” said Scholz in his speech. The SPD should also build on the successes it has achieved so far. Scholz did not address the difficult starting position with a gap of up to 19 percentage points to the Union. But he tried to encourage himself and his party with a joke: the election would take place on the birthday of party leader Lars Klingbeil and his wife Britta Ernst. “So it must go well.”

Scholz reiterates the course of “prudence” in the Ukraine war

The first topic Scholz addressed was the war in Ukraine and reiterated his course of “prudence”. It was right to make Germany the most important supporter of Ukraine after the USA, he said. But it is also about preventing a war between Russia and NATO. “I did.” He called the use of Russian medium-range missiles “a terrible escalation” and made it clear that he would not back down from his rejection of the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles.

Scholz did not face any headwinds at the local congress. In a question and answer session, the bumpy clarification of the K question was discussed as little as the decision itself. The Chancellor was greeted with standing applause after his speech

Up to 19 percent behind the Union

The starting position for Scholz could hardly be worse. If he wants to be re-elected, he will have to make an extreme comeback. In the surveys, the SPD is currently with values ​​between 14 and 16 percent, behind the AfD with 17 to 19 percent and far behind the Union with Chancellor candidate Merz (CDU), which has values ​​between 32 and 34 percent. In the current ARD Germany trend, even the Greens have now caught up with the SPD.

Scholz recently recalled the 2021 federal election in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, before which some believed the SPD was already in a hopeless situation. “The reliability of such surveys is manageable, as the last federal election showed, even if some people quickly forgot that.”

Two and a half months before the election, the SPD was also far behind the CDU/CSU – up to 16 percentage points. But then Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet started laughing in the flood zone, and the mood changed. In the election, the Social Democrats ultimately won 25.7 percent of the vote and Scholz became chancellor of the first traffic light coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP at the federal level.