Federal election 2025: FDP introduces Buschmann as Secretary General – live

“Now it’s all about the whole thing,” says SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, getting his party in the mood for the election campaign around three months before the federal election. In his first major campaign speech to around 500 party members in Berlin, he viewed the election on February 23rd as a directional decision between a “back from here” conservatism of the Union and the SPD as a “center force” in Germany that stands for “common sense “ stand. He received long standing applause for his hour-long speech. “Let’s reflect on our strength: Don’t complain, do it. Fight together,” said Scholz at the end of his speech.

About FDP leader Christian Lindner, whom he dismissed as finance minister at the beginning of November and thus sealed the end of the traffic light coalition, he said: In serious times, Germany needs serious politics and “no players and no gamblers”. Lindner and his FDP had “systematically sabotaged” the work of the traffic light government for months.

Scholz named four points that he wants to promote in the election campaign in order to get out of the economic crisis: securing industrial jobs, cheap energy for the economy, increased investment in infrastructure and the fight against the shortage of skilled workers. In order to enable investments, Scholz wants to reform the debt brake. He also called for a further increase in the minimum wage and said that stable pensions and affordable housing would only be possible with the SPD. He emphasized that the traffic light government had made great progress in the fight against irregular immigration.

Party leader Lars Klingbeil called on the keynote speaker not to be influenced by the surveys. “Don’t listen to the polls, don’t listen to the articles that are being written now,” he said. “If the SPD can do something, it is fight. We are a party for catching up.” In the surveys, the SPD is currently at 14 to 16 percent.