Update
Despite election defeat
Scholz believes in his own candidacy for chancellor in 2025
15.06.2024, 10:16 a.m.
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The most recent elections were a disaster for the SPD. Chancellor Scholz admits that there is too much discussion and that it is difficult to see what the government is deciding because of all the gun smoke. At the same time, he comments on the candidacy for chancellor.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is firmly convinced that he will be the SPD’s candidate for chancellor again in next year’s federal election. In an interview with ARD, when asked whether he was sure that he would be his party’s next candidate for the chancellorship in light of the criticism, he answered with a brief “yes”. In the poll rankings, Scholz always ends up far behind his party colleague, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Scholz also reiterated why he did not want to ask for a vote of confidence after the poor result of the traffic light parties in the European elections. “The government has a majority in parliament. We have just passed laws this week in the German Bundestag and we have a mandate to fulfil and to do our work. That is what we are doing,” said Scholz, who was interviewed before leaving the G7 summit in Bari, Italy.
Scholz did not want to “assess from the outside” that French President Emmanuel Macron is taking a different path and has called parliamentary elections at short notice. France has a very different political system than Germany. Scholz said: “There is a directly elected president. There is no proportional representation system, but constituencies in which only the MPs are elected.”
Scholz calls for less “gun smoke” in the traffic light coalition
Scholz also called on the traffic light coalition to pull itself together after the poor results in the European elections. In an interview with ntv, he reiterated that one cannot simply carry on with business as usual after the traffic light parties’ losses in the election. That means, first and foremost, “doing the homework that still needs to be done.”
Scholz told ZDF: “I think that is one of the very justified criticisms of many citizens, that there is too much discussion,” said the SPD politician in an interview at the G7 summit in southern Italy. “In the end, a lot is decided, but sometimes you can’t even see what has been decided behind the gun smoke.”
The immediate issue is the budget for next year – a task “that we have to solve soon, by the deadline at the beginning of next month.” And it is about “good growth” and modern jobs. “And that also means that we have to pull ourselves together and pull ourselves together in the way we reach an agreement.”
Scholz: We must join forces
Looking ahead to the federal election next year, Scholz was confident that he would be able to show a good record and good prospects despite the recent election defeat. “But I want to say explicitly that this does mean that everyone has to pause and make a firm resolution to do this, to join hands.” This of course applies “especially to my party, which is dealing with the difficult situation with great solidarity.”
The SPD had to record its worst result in a nationwide vote to date in the European elections, with 13.9 percent. This put it behind the AfD and far behind the CDU.