She told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” (Thursday) that she had decided to renew her application for the highest office in the party.
The new SPD leadership is to be elected at a party congress from December 10th to 12th. The leadership issue had moved after co-chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans announced his withdrawal on Friday.
Esken and Walter-Borjans were elected as SPD leaders at the end of 2019 as a result of a member survey. This was preceded by the catastrophic performance of Germany’s oldest party in the 2019 European elections (15.8 percent), which resulted in the resignation of party leader Andrea Nahles. Until she was elected to the top of the party, Esken was a largely unknown “backbencher” in the Bundestag, to which she has been a member since 2013.
The SPD is now the likely next chancellor party. Provided that the coalition negotiations between the SPD, Greens and FDP are successfully concluded, the SPD’s top candidate Olaf Scholz would be elected Chancellor by the Bundestag in the week of December 6-10. Scholz, who lost to the Esken / Walter-Borjans duo in 2019, has now shown no interest in the party leadership. As party leader, Esken would again have little chance of a ministerial office in a future red-yellow-green government.