“We make it”
SPD strengthens Schwesig with historic election results
April 13, 2024, 2:31 p.m
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Manuela Schwesig has been at the head of the SPD in the northeast for six years. In the seventh year, as she says, she will be confirmed in office with her best result. It’s a clear sign for the 49-year-old, whose popularity has recently crumbled somewhat.
The SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will be led by Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig for another two years. At the state party conference in Göhren-Lebbin, the 49-year-old received 96 percent of the votes. She achieved her best result to date. Of the 134 delegates present, 128 expressed their confidence in Schwesig and six voted against her.
Schwesig, who ran unopposed, has led the regional association since 2017 and has been Prime Minister since then. “We’re in our seventh damn year, but it doesn’t feel like it. No matter what happens, we can do it,” she said in her first reaction, visibly moved by the great approval. Neither Harald Ringstoff nor Erwin Sellering achieved a better election result than their predecessors as SPD state leaders.
With her clear victory in the 2021 state elections, Schwesig had further consolidated her position as the undisputed party leader. However, according to surveys, both approval of the SPD and the popularity of its frontwoman fell among voters in the northeast. She also came under federal criticism for her long-standing Russia-friendly policies. However, this had no impact on their reputation within the 2,850-member SPD in the northeast.
At the beginning of the party conference, Schwesig had prepared the party for a committed election campaign. Traditionally, the SPD has played a significantly smaller role in the municipalities of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania than in state politics. In 2019, it was only third behind the CDU and the Left in the local elections with 15.4 percent, but two years later it was the clear winner in the state elections with 39.6 percent. The next state parliament is expected to be elected in autumn 2026.
Before her time in the Schwerin State Chancellery, the 49-year-old was Federal Minister for Family Affairs from 2013 to 2017. Before that, she headed the family department in the state government in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Her political career began in 2004 in the city council of the state capital Schwerin.