Press
The dispute in the traffic light coalition is not abating even after the European elections. Kevin Kühnert sees the responsibility with the Greens and FDP and speaks of a “disgrace to contacts”.
Berlin – For the traffic light parties, the European elections proved to be the slap in the face that was feared. The SPD, Greens and FDP lost significantly in Sunday’s election and together ended up just ahead of the Union. The Greens were hit the hardest, losing 8.6 percentage points compared to the 2019 election. After almost two and a half years, the traffic light coalition is in ruins. Calls for new elections from the ranks of the AfD and the Union were not long in coming. The next squabble in the governing coalition was already looming on Monday.
Kühnert sees “contact disgrace” in SPD – next traffic light dispute after the election?
The trigger was the statements of SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert, who did not see the responsibility for the poor performance of the Social Democrats as lying solely with the SPD. Kühnert described the 13.9 percent in the election to the TV station Phoenix as an “insult to the pride of social democracy” from which it is urgently necessary to work its way out.
When asked about the loss of voters, especially from the lower income brackets, the SPD general saw the blame primarily on the coalition partners. Kühnert spoke of a “disgrace of contact” in which the two coalition partners “are very strongly rejected by this part of the population and it rubs off on us too.” The SPD – according to Kühnert’s analysis – cannot make use of its competence in issues of social justice because the Greens and FDP would lose the trust of the voters. A clear statement that also met with surprise among the coalition partners.
Green Party leader rejects Kühnert criticism – should “clean up our own doorstep”
Green Party leader Ricarda Lang said at a press conference on Monday: “I believe that with such poor results for all three coalition partners, everyone would be well advised to look at their own doorsteps and not simply say: it’s the others’ fault.” This is reported by T-online“I believe that you start evaluating an election with yourself. We are definitely doing that and are not simply pointing the finger at others,” said Lang, also referring to Kühnert.
Traffic light coalition under pressure after European elections – Scholz calls for cooperation
Despite the verbal offensive by the SPD general secretary, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called on the traffic light parties to work together on Monday. “The election result was bad for all three governing parties,” said the Chancellor in Berlin. “No one is well advised to simply move on to business as usual.” However, the aim for the SPD, Greens and FDP must be to achieve results in order to increase approval of the work of the “traffic light” coalition before the next federal election.
Conciliatory tones also came from the ranks of the FDP. Party leader Christian Lindner did not question the chancellor’s leadership skills or the traffic light coalition as a government model. “We have a common government program, a coalition agreement that we are working on together. And as long as everyone is committed to the basis for work, there is no reason to question trust,” he said.
Kühnert after SPD defeat in European elections: “We won’t win the federal election with this”
In recent polls, the Chancellor’s party is at just 16 percent, well behind the Union, which has values of around 30 percent. Kühnert also stated Phoenix: “One year before the federal election, I simply have to say that if things stay like this, we will not win the federal election.” However, Kühnert rejected early elections, as demanded by CSU leader Markus Söder. (fd with material from dpa)
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