“Scholz is not the only problem”
Stegner bans SPD from whining
18.06.2024, 00:03
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Stegner, a left-winger on the SPD’s side, wants to overcome the shock of the European elections with more professionalism and less whining. He compares the FDP’s attitude to the debt brake with the Pope’s insistence on celibacy. He has an idea for a solution to the budget dispute.
SPD Bundestag member Ralf Stegner has called for leadership from Chancellor Olaf Scholz following his party’s poor performance in the European elections. In an interview with Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), he diagnosed too much self-pity and whining in his own parliamentary group. “The SPD’s external image must improve,” said Stegner. “This affects not only the Chancellor, but also the Bundestag members. This is a joint task. There is too much whining and self-absorption and too little professionalism.”
The SPD’s issues are work, pensions, housing and health. “We lost a lot of voters there.” After the “catastrophic” SPD European election result of 13.9 percent, it is clear to everyone: “Something has to change before the three state elections in the east in September, otherwise the ship will not reach the port. The dispute in the traffic light coalition must finally stop.” The Chancellor’s leadership is required. “We must not leave the issues of peace policy and migration to the left-right populists from Wagenknecht’s group and certainly not to the right-wing radical AfD without a fight,” said Stegner. “The federal budget for 2025 must be drawn up by consensus with good proposals before the summer break.
“Greens must act on migration”
Stegner warned that the SPD could not “swallow the poisonous cocktail of social cuts and rearmament”. For the Social Democrats, Stegner, who belongs to the left wing of the Social Democrats, signalled a willingness to compromise within narrow limits: “We support certain corrections to the citizen’s income, for example in cases of proven illegal work, and those who can work should do so, but the decisive savings in the citizen’s income will be achieved through decent wages in the lower sectors, so that the miserable top-up system stops.”
The coalition could accommodate the FDP in terms of economic development “if it does not interpret the debt brake as orthodoxly as the Pope interprets celibacy.” The Greens must move on migration. Violent offenders must be deported.” Overall, the budget must be drawn up by consensus with good proposals before the summer break. “All three partners must see their profile and strength reflected in the government’s draft.”