Friday 29 October 2021
Klingbeil has a good chance
Scholz does not want to become SPD party leader
With Norbert Walter-Borjans, Olaf Scholz still competed for the party chairmanship. He now no longer has any ambitions to move to the top of the Social Democrats. This is entirely in the spirit of the previous SPD boss. Is Lars Klingbeil now following in his footsteps?
The executive finance minister and SPD candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz has made it clear that he does not want to be the successor to SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans. The SPD will jointly decide how to proceed at the party leadership, “that is not a difficult task,” said Scholz on the sidelines of the deliberations of the major industrialized countries (G20) in Rome. “But it is also clear that I am concentrating on what I have been commissioned by the citizens to do, namely to form a government. And to become the next Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.” When asked whether this meant that he did not want to become head of the SPD, Scholz said: “That was very clearly expressed.”
Walter-Borjans is a good friend, said Scholz and emphasized: “We have all worked closely together to make it possible for the SPD to achieve electoral success. And that has succeeded. This is something very, very special for all of us.”
Walter-Borjans emerged as the winner of an elaborate selection of candidates together with Saskia Esken in 2019. New elections are planned for a three-day party congress from December 10th to 12th. It is unclear whether Esken will run again. It is speculated that she wants to take over a ministerial office in the desired traffic light coalition. The 60-year-old thanked her co-chairman “for the courage and strength to have embarked on this adventure,” as she wrote on Twitter. “The SPD is back and it is strong.” You and Walter-Borjans could “look back with pride on our journey. The SPD is united as it has not for a long time.”
General Secretary Lars Klingbeil is seen as a promising candidate for the SPD chairmanship. The 43-year-old is considered to be one of the fathers of the SPD’s success in the federal elections. Walter-Borjans did not want to comment on his successor. But he was against the party leadership going into a new cabinet. “A member of the government as a party leader is necessarily always a bit of a government spokesman,” he said. The previous division of labor – party chairmanship on the one hand and government office on the other – has proven its worth.
Scholz thanked Walter-Borjans on Twitter “for the great commitment, the trusting cooperation and the support over the past two years”. Scholz took up the party chairmanship with the member of parliament Klara Geywitz. Regardless of this, the Vice Chancellor was chosen as the SPD’s candidate for Chancellor. The 63-year-old is now about to take over from Angela Merkel.