Lars Klingbeil: Where Schröder’s loved one resembles ex-chancellor-and where not

The young student Lars Klingbeil worked from 2001 to 2003 in the constituency office of the SPD member of the Bundestag Gerhard Schröder. Too often he will not have seen his boss there, because he was mainly busy as a chancellor to rule the country in Berlin. Nevertheless, a close relationship, at times even a friendship was created. In 2021, Klingbeil was the last SPD politician, made for the Schröder election campaign, and most likely the last one who asked him about it.

These days you can see that Schröder’s influence on Klingbeil has not passed without a trace. The chairman has expanded his power in the SPD with instinct, assertiveness and hardness – properties that are needed in politics. They are neither purely social democratic nor only male when you consider who the CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel drew everything off. In any case, it only took a few weeks until Klingbeil has become the strong man of the SPD, who in particular makes his personnel decisions after his desire.

Klingbeil understood how he, as the SPD leader, can acquire trust capital when dealing with the evil outer world in order to then invest it in the party, for example when compiling a ministerial team according to his ideas. Therefore, the chairman of the SPD, which had even landed behind the AfD in the Bundestag election, appeared in the coalition negotiations with the Union like Graf Koks, who dictated Friedrich Merz. So he strengthened the self -confidence of his demoralized party, which promptly followed him when he now had earned comrades jumped politically over the blade.

Klingbeil learns quickly. When the SPD confessed to the Chancellor’s candidate question in November 2024 and did not know whether it should take Olaf Scholz or Boris Pistorius, he let the discussion run out of awkwardness, the end of both – and his party. When it came to whether Saskia Esken, at least his formally equal co-chair, should receive a ministerial post in the government, he let the debate run again. But this time he followed a plan. In the end, Esken was obviously so grueled by the discussion about her person that she could no longer fight for the cabinet post – she would have liked to become a development minister. Together with Klingbeil, she invented the beautiful legend that she was primarily concerned with lifting many young women into the cabinet. Well then.

A portion of ruthlessness, even brutality, is the Schröder in Klingbeil. Just like the ability to ignore deviating opinions and public scolding at the crucial moment. Klingbeil will be heard for a while that he might have acted in an understandable manner at ESKEN. He can live with it, the caravan moves on.

But Klingbeil differentiates one thing from Schröder-very much to the disadvantage of today’s SPD chairman. Schröder had charm, but Klingbeil only maintains a softie image that does not fit his personnel policy acts. For weeks he complained in interviews the shameful discussion about Saskia Esken, gave the gentle man and understanding political partner, but used public reservations against ESKEN at the same time to enforce his will and boot it. He should now let this gathering be. Nobody believes him anymore.