Saskia Esken under pressure: Is the SPD party leader on call?

Parties are ruthless organizations. If the person at the top is successful, she often follows her in blind loyalty. If it is no longer, the party can push her into the abyss with an equally great zeal.

The party leader Saskia Esken currently has to experience this experience. Even before the election, there were always grumbles about their awkward TV appearances, about their leadership qualities that are perceived as poor. Since the historically poor performance of the SPD, the criticism has been expressed more and more drastically internally.

Esken has her merits, but now it is time to go, it says from the party. The party leadership did not deliver in the election campaign, so it had to be renewed. It could not be that both chairpersons saved themselves in ministerial posts that it was a fatal signal, someone says from the lead.

It is always eating that is then called. Not her co-chair Lars Klingbeil, who is also responsible for the election result. He insulated all the claims for his resignation by taking Rolf Mützenich the parliamentary group chair right after the election.

Why does the woman have to go in the dual top of all people? “This is not about man or woman,” says board circles. “It’s about performance.” Esken sees it a little differently. One can always argue about performance, she recently said in an interview with the star. “But I want to say clearly that the way criticism of me is expressed is strongly shaped by role clichés.”

A safe indication that the situation is worrying for ESKEN are the “dirt”. This is how it is called in politics when information that is supposed to harm the respective management figure from your own shop is stunned. The term was shaped in 2007 when it became known that the then CSU boss Horst Seehofer had created an illegitimate child.

In the case of Esken, the “Bild” reported on Friday that the SPD leader had traveled on a short vacation. Of all things, Eesken treats himself to a break in the Canaries during the coalition negotiations. This would be perceived as “instinctive” in parliamentary group management. The undertone: Klingbeil does the work while eating pleasure, but nevertheless crash on a ministerial post.

From the Willy-Brandt-Haus it says: “She doesn’t skip anything, she doesn’t miss anything, she can be reached by phone.” Esken treated itself to the short vacation because she hadn’t released a day since the election and was not part of the working groups currently available. They should deliver their results by Monday before the main negotiators of the Union and the SPD conferge, including ESKE.

Esken took part in her privately booked trip, among other things, in several hours of switching and did not miss a single appointment, the party headquarters continued. Here you can see in the report a targeted attempt to shoot Esken from the race for a cabinet post.

And Lars Klingbeil? Officially, the SPD leader does not let anything come to his co-chair. However, he already said on the election evening at the party headquarters when he appeared that there must now be a “generation change” in the SPD. Esken is 63. Klingbeil is 47.

After the election, criticism had also become loud. Klingbeil is considered the man who did not prevent Olaf Scholz’s candidacy. It is all the more practical for the SPD boss if the displeasure now discharges his copilot. Especially since the dissatisfied in the SPD also know that a complete exchange of management teams would harm the party in times of forming the government.

The generation change is one of the arguments listed. Or that Klingbeil won his constituency in Rotenburg I-Heidekreis with 42.1 percent of the first votes and was the most successful among the SPD MPs. While Esken in Calw, at 12.9 percent, not only far behind the CDU candidate, but also behind the competitor of the AfD.

Supporters from Esken point out that the Stuttgart native, unlike Klingbeil, was chosen by the SPD basis and not “only” from a party congress. In criticism, they also smell an attempt to defamate a woman who does not fit into the still very male -dominated management of the SPD.

An accusation that cannot be completely dismissed. Ex-SPD leader Andrea Nahles also had to put up with a lot of malice from the party because of her public appearance. And she also had the experience that even in the SPD, which is officially open to equal rights, there are men-power circle that remained closed to her.

What’s next? At the end of June, the SPD holds its party congress in Berlin. Then a new party chair is elected. A martial candidacy against Esken is unlikely. Something like this must be regulated in advance, it says from the party. Only: you need an alternative.

The women who were previously traded for the chair have already waved off: the Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger, who would like many, have little desire for the double burden. Her counterpart from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, will have to contest a state election next year and is considered indispensable. Bärbel BAS would remain, which after leaving the Office of the Bundestag president again.

Esken does not seem to be ready to give way without a fight. Especially not if you don’t even get a ministerial office for it. “I’ve been in politics for many years and a strong woman oriented towards the matter,” said Esken in the star-Interview. “Of course I dare to do a ministerial office.” It was clear to them that women should be “strongly represented” on the government post. This is another miracle point of the SPD: their women would not be so well received if after the cabinet formation and reorganization of the faction, only men shaped the picture.

Last but not least, Esken who has had to fight for a lot in life is tough. In the spring of 2022 she broke her calf after a fall. Because the break was not diagnosed at first, it just continued, and the party dates took for days. When it matters, it can stand. Like a man.