Jusos nod off traffic light contract: SPD youngsters confirmed chairwoman Rosenthal

The Bundestag election not only gave the SPD the Chancellery, but also dozens of Jusos in the new Bundestag parliamentary group. At the beginning of its federal congress, the party’s youngsters confirmed the chairwoman Jessica Rosenthal – and asked the upcoming chairman duo of the federal party.

The Young Socialists in the SPD (Jusos) confirmed their chairwoman Jessica Rosenthal at the federal congress in Frankfurt am Main. Rosenthal, who was elected to succeed Kevin Kühnert at the top of Juso in 2020, received 73 percent of the 287 votes, around five percentage points less than a year ago. “We want to democratize the economy, we want to overcome the capitalist system,” announced the 29-year-old member of the Bundestag in her application speech.

“The capitalist economic system as it is now just doesn’t work.” Few people get richer at the expense of the majority. “A vote in Berlin on whether to make an expropriation does not happen because people are doing so well, but because people are shitty,” said Rosenthal, referring to the successful referendum on “expropriating Deutsche Wohnen”. The Jusos would advocate more participation by employees in companies and less working hours. The teacher elected to the Bundestag this autumn promised: “I would like to be able to speak our voice there too.”

The federal congress, originally scheduled from Friday to Sunday, will take place hybrid with a significantly smaller number of participants. Many Jusos had to stay at home and follow the event online. The rest of the federal board with ten deputy chairmen will also be re-elected by the end of the federal congress on Saturday evening, including many new heads.

New work program adopted

In addition to the personnel list, it is also about the content orientation for the coming years. The Federal Congress decided on a work program entitled “Towards Tomorrow” for the next two years. In it, the young socialists set priorities, among other things, in the fight for diversity and equality in politics and society as well as against racism and discrimination. The rights of employees, and in particular trainees, are to be protected and further developed, and there is also a plan to develop a proposal for a comprehensive tax reform for the next federal election.

The Jusos will implement the work program in a slightly different role: after the years in half opposition to the grand coalition under Union leadership, the SPD will soon provide the Chancellor with Olaf Scholz. It is not to be expected that the Jusos will position themselves as sharply against the traffic lights as against the GroKo under Rosenthal’s predecessor Kevin Kühnert. On the contrary: the coalition agreement received a lot of support.

Jusos nod coalition agreement

The agreement between the SPD, Greens and FDP contains many aspects that the Jusos have enforced within the SPD over the past two years, said Rosenthal. “That is why we are all of the opinion that this is a good basis with which we can work,” said the member of the Bundestag, who helped negotiate the coalition agreement. As a particular success for the Jusos, Rosenthal booked the training place guarantee demanded by their association.

Only a few delegates expressed criticism, for example about the fact that there is no property tax due to the FDP or about the fact that the parties agreed to purchase armed drones. The fact that the SPD will foreseeably not appoint any federal ministers with a history of migration met with criticism, as did the underrepresentation of people from the new federal states in the party.

Klingbeil advertises itself

Federal chairwoman Saskia Esken and general secretary Lars Klingbeil, who wants to take over from Norbert Walter-Borjans as co-chairman at the SPD federal party conference on December 11, also heard this general encouragement. Klingbeil and Esken both answered questions from the delegates in Frankfurt. The program work did not end with the victory in the Bundestag election.

Klingbeil, who at 43 years of age is not that far above the Juso maximum age of 35, promised the delegates that he would fight for a “social democratic decade”. As in the previous general election, the Jusos have an important role to play in the success: “Younger, more colorful, more feminine does not stop with this general election,” said Klingbeil. “What I can offer you as chairman,” Klingbeil promoted, “is that I certainly do not make the Jusos happy with everything that is said, but that I fight with you every day to ensure that we have the social democratic decade that I have spoken of. “

On Saturday, Olaf Scholz, whom the Jusos had fought as GroKo representative in Kühnert’s time, will speak to the delegates in Frankfurt. A week later, the SPD wants to vote on the coalition agreement at an extraordinary, digital party congress. In times when not even the Jusos have anything to complain about, the approval of the fourth SPD-led federal government after the cabinets under Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder is only a matter of form.

.
source site-34