Press
The traffic light parties are weakening – because they do not care about people’s needs, says SPD politician Jochen Ott. He is not the only one who is self-critical.
Cologne – 2024 will not be the year of the championship. At least not for the SPD. In the European elections, the Social Democrats only managed to get just under 14 percent of the vote. And according to a survey, Germans have never been as dissatisfied with any other chancellor since 1997 as they have with SPD chancellor Olaf Scholz.
SPD weakens: “A lesson for the traffic light coalition”
The SPD is also weakening in North Rhine-Westphalia. In its former stronghold, the party, which has to assert itself in the state parliament in opposition to a black-green government, only received 17 percent. Why is that? “That was a lesson to the traffic light coalition. People are fed up with the disputes in the federal government. That has damaged us in North Rhine-Westphalia,” said NRW SPD parliamentary group leader Jochen Ott in an interview with our editorial team.
There is too much moralism in the political debate – most recently in the election campaign, for example, in dealing with the AfD. “Arguing against the shift to the right is part of the DNA of social democracy. But the fight against the right is not about morality, but about good politics for the majority of the population,” says Ott. And the majority of the population are “those who get up in the morning, do their job, and follow the rules.”
Traffic jams, train problems, daycare closures: “People have the feeling that the state is not functioning”
“Many people are fed up with the constant talk about those who don’t follow the rules,” says the NRW opposition leader. And he says self-critically, also with regard to his own party: “Parents have the problem that the daycare center is closed in the morning. People can’t get an appointment with a specialist, are late for work because of the train, or are stuck in traffic because the motorway bridge is broken. Some people get the feeling that the state isn’t working. We haven’t addressed these people enough.”
Does that mean that politicians are dealing with completely the wrong issues? “There is a lot of talk about migration, citizens’ income and international relations with Ukraine. That is all important,” says Ott. “But I have often received the message from people: talk about our issues. I think a lot of people are social democrats at heart. But at the moment we are not performing well in Berlin and that is weakening us.”
Self-critical SPD tones – and Greens warn against “green client politics”
The deputy NRW Minister President Mona Neubauer recently expressed similar self-criticism in an interview. Her party, the Greens, was European elections was punished particularly severely, with Alliance 90 losing almost nine percent of votes compared to the 2017 election. Neubaur warned against “green client politics”: “We must continue to pursue the centrist course and therefore ask ourselves whether we are still reaching the people there sufficiently with our political approaches and our language.”
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