SPD on fire after Scholz  insisted on running for second term

Admin I Sunday, November 24, 2024

 

BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to remain the Social Democrats’ lead candidate in upcoming elections continues to divide his party, with party deputy Serpil Midyatli joining a chorus of members criticizing the unpopular incumbent leader.

“I am also feeling the anger in this room,” Midyatli said at a Sunday event for young politicians in the eastern German city of Halle, in the latest remarks on a lasting rift in the centre-left party, a day before Scholz was set to be nominated as chancellor candidate.

For weeks the Social Democrats (SPD) had been split over whether to stick with Scholz despite dismal popularity polling or to swap in the current German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, widely seen as one of the country’s most popular politicians.

After Pistorius renounced calls for him to become the chancellor candidate, Scholz is now set to be formally nominated to run for a second term on Monday, despite abysmal approval ratings and calls from within the party for him to bow out.

“We should have done better,” Midyatli said on the topic of deciding a chancellor candidate question, or what is widely termed the “K-Frage” in Germany.

Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken, the two party chairpersons present on Sunday, faced heavy criticism at the event, with Esken admitting the party had made mistakes in the lead-up to the planned early elections, set to take place on February 23.

Klingbeil meanwhile admitted to broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the party now knows that the matter “should have been handled differently,” but said: “Now, everyone is also obliged to flip the switch and make sure that we start the election campaign.”