New party leadership
Saskia Esken no longer runs as a SPD chairman
The SPD remains the ruling party, but this path goes without Saskia Esken. The co-boss told the ARD that she no longer wanted to run for the party chair.
Saskia Esken withdraws from the SPD leadership and no longer wants to run as party leader. The party will vote on a new chair at the Federal Party Congress at the end of June. Esken announced her decision in the “Report from Berlin” in the ARD. She wanted to make room for young people – “especially young women”.
“In the past six years I have had a great pleasure and the great honor of leading the SPD as party leader,” said Esken on Sunday evening. This is a time -honored and at the same time lively party. “I now give up my party chairman and make room for the renewal.” In the Bundestag, the SPD leader remains a member of the Calw / Freudenstadt constituency.
The SPD Baden-Württemberg, its state board, had not nominated Eesken for the federal board at the end of April.
Saskia Esken was not taken into account in the cabinet
In the federal election, the party only reached 16.4 percent – a historically bad result. Parts of the SPD then made Esken responsible for the poor performance. While the SPD boss is now withdrawing from the front row, her co-chair Lars Klingbeil as Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister rose in the grand coalition under Friedrich Merz. Esken’s decision also follows criticism from the party base that Klingbeil had accused of having “punished”. He had not taken into account in cabinet formation, Esken went out without a ministerial post.
When asked about the criticism of Klingbeil, Esken said in the “Report from Berlin” that she had his support for many years: “It was always a good, close and trusting cooperation”. Nevertheless, she expressed quiet criticism of her public evaluation: “I believe that women in politics are judged to be harder than men”.
Esken has been the party leader since 2019, then elected by the members directly in the duo with Norbert Walter-Borjans. In the following years, she made a significant contribution to stabilizing the SPD. After 2021, she reliably supported Chancellor Olaf Scholz, although she didn’t always agree with him. Most recently, on the side of Lars Klingbeil, she acted the coalition agreement with the CDU and CSU.
Note: This article has been updated.
MKB
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
