“Don’t appear disoriented”
Berlin party leader Saleh wants a new SPD basic program
08/18/2023, 4:49 p.m
The CDU has been struggling to come up with a new party program for years. That of the SPD is now more than a decade and a half old. The Berlin SPD is now starting a debate about a new policy paper. The head of state demands that the topic of social justice must be redefined.
The Berlin SPD state leader Raed Saleh calls for a new basic program for the federal party. “In order not to appear disoriented as an SPD,” it must Hamburg program from 2007 to new challenges and the reality of people’s lives, he told the “Spiegel”. The SPD must remain recognizable even under the constraints of the traffic light coalition and must “re-spell out” the issue of social justice.
Referring to the Bundeswehr’s special fund, he continued: “If we provide an additional 100 billion euros for military spending overnight, fundamentally increase military spending and deliver weapons to war zones, people’s living conditions must not deteriorate significantly at the same time.”
He also criticized the fact that the federal government’s heating law “contrary to the system, leading to tenants being asked to pay an increased permanent modernization levy in addition to the state and the housing groups laughing up their sleeves”. This one-sided burden policy is not a communication problem, but a fundamental question of justice and acceptance, which must be discussed and decided by the party.
Discuss and decide transparently
“We Social Democrats must guarantee people that they will not share more in the costs of the transformation than the corporations,” Saleh told the “Tagesspiegel”. The SPD’s basic value of justice “forces us to start with a redistribution debate given the unfair gap between corporate profits and the burden on people”. Because a “one-sided burden policy” cannot be solved by better explanations, but is a “fundamental question of justice”, it must “be discussed and decided by the party in a fundamental and transparent manner”.
The 46-year-old has been chairman of the Berlin SPD since the end of 2020, together with the former governing mayor and current Senator for Economic Affairs, Franziska Giffey. Saleh has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2006 and has also led the parliamentary group since December 2011. In the repeat election in February, like Giffey, he was unable to defend his direct mandate and entered parliament via the state list. Despite the SPD’s electoral defeat, the top duo defended the party’s place on the government bench – albeit only as a partner of the CDU.
The CDU is currently working on a new basic program. It is to be decided at a party conference next year. It was developed under the leadership of the incumbent Secretary General, Carsten Linnemann. The program entitled “Freedom and Security” also dates from 2007. Ex-party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had already wanted to start revising it. However, neither she nor her successor, Armin Laschet, made any decisive progress on the project during their comparatively short and troubled terms of office.