New Bundestag elections: SPD starts the election campaign with Scholz at the helm

The SPD starts the election campaign on Saturday with its candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz at the top. The head of the red-green minority government will give his first major campaign speech at a so-called “election victory conference” at the party headquarters in Berlin in front of around 500 constituency candidates and their teams. He has set himself the goal of making the SPD the strongest force in the Bundestag again, as it was three years ago. However, in surveys it is currently between 16 and 22 percentage points behind the Union. There are only 85 days left until the election on February 23rd to catch up.

Unanimous nomination of the candidate for chancellor

Scholz was unanimously nominated as candidate for chancellor by the party executive committee on Monday. This was preceded by a two-week debate about whether Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who is much more popular with the people, should be substituted for Scholz, who is politically ailing after the failure of his traffic light government.

The SPD now wants to put the dispute behind it. After the nomination, Scholz was confident that he could still achieve the turnaround like in the last election in 2021: “Together with you, I want to win the coming federal election. And I am sure: if we fight for it together, then that is also possible.” , he wrote in a letter to the SPD members.

Pension security, tax relief, affordable energy prices

In the election campaign, the SPD wants to campaign for the preservation of industrial jobs and affordable energy prices. She also wants to make the future of pensions an issue. “The next federal election will decide whether there is a stable pension in Germany or not,” said Scholz on Monday.

The Social Democrats are also promoting a fundamental income tax reform that would relieve the burden on 95 percent of taxpayers. The one percent at the top of the income scale should pay for this.

Reform of the debt brake – double strategy in Ukraine

In order to enable more investment in infrastructure, education and a climate-neutral and digital economy, the SPD is aiming for a “targeted reform of the debt rules”. The minimum wage should rise “gradually and quickly” to 15 euros.

Scholz also wants to score points in the election campaign with his dual strategy in the Ukraine war. On the one hand, he assures Ukraine of continued arms deliveries, but at the same time wants to prevent NATO from becoming involved in the war with Russia. That is why he rejects the provision of the Taurus cruise missiles that Kiev has been demanding for a long time.

25.7 percent in the last election

Scholz’s candidacy for chancellor still has to be confirmed at the party conference on January 11th. This is considered a formality. However, Scholz has to be measured by his result from May 2021 – a good four months before the federal election. At that time he was confirmed with 96.2 percent of the vote.

At that time, as today, the SPD was polling between 14 and 16 percent. It was only a laugh from Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet in the flood area that was perceived as inappropriate that brought about a turning point in the summer: the SPD ultimately became the strongest force with 25.7 percent.