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The SPD has to look for a new party (co) leader: Norbert Walter-Borjans does not want to run for office again. Elections will take place in December.
Düsseldorf – SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans wants to give up his office. Walter-Borjans said he would not apply again for the party chairmanship at the party congress on December 11th Rheinische Post according to information from Friday. He has been leading the SPD * since the end of 2019 with Saskia Esken in a dual leadership.
“For me, the chairmanship was not associated with any further career planning from the outset, but the goal of getting the party on course,” Walter-Borjans told the newspaper. “With this mission I have come so far that I can say: Now younger people should take it.” He leaves with the “good feeling of having helped shape the SPD for two years,” said the 69-year-old. “During this time we have shown that we can stick together and be successful with social democratic politics. After many years we are again the leading player in German politics. “
SPD: Walter-Borjans announces withdrawal – what is Scholz doing?
With the decision, the Social Democrats are likely to have new personnel debates – and possibly also a dispute over the direction. Walter-Borjans and Esken are considered to be much more left-wing than the candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz *. The latter, as the Germans’ clear favorite for chancellor, can claim from the polls before the election that his course is one of the decisive factors for winning the Bundestag election.
Walter-Borjans wanted to be loud Rheinischer Post inform the SPD committees this Friday about his move. But his withdrawal also comes as a surprise to the general public. During the election campaign, the SPD had largely tried to achieve unity and publicly praised the cooperation between Scholz and the chairman duo as a positive factor.
The top SPD politicians responded with thanks and praise. “Together with Saskia Esken, Lars Klingbeil and Rolf Mützenich, we have led the SPD to new successes – you also have to thank for that,” Scholz wrote on Twitter. “Dear Norbert, I am infinitely grateful to you for the time we spent together,” wrote co-party leader Esken, also in the short message service. In her contribution, however, she did not comment on whether she would like to apply for another term of office as SPD chairwoman.
SPD chairmanship: Kühnert was already speculating on “Lanz” in mid-October about a new constellation
Walter-Borjans himself gave a direct hint for the successor – indirectly also for Scholz: He opposed the future party leadership going into the new cabinet. “A member of the government as a party leader is necessarily always a bit of a government spokesman.” The previous division of labor – party chairmanship on the one hand and government office on the other – has proven its worth. The Greens handle it in a similar way. There could therefore also be a departure of party chairmen Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock *.
However, party vice Kevin Kühnert speculated publicly * about a new constellation at the top of the SPD in the ZDF talk “Markus Lanz” in mid-October. He thought it would be a good thing if government and party offices would remain “at least partially” separate after the formation of a possible traffic light coalition, said Kühnert – in the context of a dual leadership that would be possible.
Specifically, such a constellation would mean that, in addition to Esken, a Federal Minister or Chancellor Scholz would take on a chairmanship. Or that Esken becomes a minister herself and a non-cabinet member moves up to the board. The SPD, Greens and FDP want the coalition negotiations to be concluded and a new chancellor elected by mid-December.
Walter-Borjans and Esken: SPD bosses can prove electoral successes – Duo separates in December
In the past few months and years there had been some mockery of the awkward or rather dry demeanor of the two party leaders Esken and Walter-Borjans. On the plus side, however, is the election victory in the Bundestag election in September. The Social Democrats were also the strongest force in the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin.
The two SPD bosses started as a duo in 2019 and after months of preparation and many regional conferences had made the race to succeed Andrea Nahles. This time the process will be much tighter: in one and a half months there will be elections – and the top social democrats are strongly bound by the ongoing traffic light coalition negotiations. (AFP / fn) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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