It’s as if Andrea Nahles has come full circle. Who would have thought after the end of her political career on June 3, 2019? It was a Monday, Nahles had come back to the Willy Brandt House to say goodbye to her people and the committees at party headquarters. The day before she had announced her withdrawal from the party and parliamentary group leadership. She had failed after just one year as chairwoman and her SPD.
As they exited, Nahles and a slim woman from security hugged each other. It was important to the woman to say thank you again to Nahles – for the minimum wage, which ensured that the employee earned better. As Labor Minister, Nahles had already fought for the introduction of the lower wage limit. On that June day, at the moment of their greatest defeat, their politics became very concrete.
Now, two and a half years later, Nahles is about to return to the big stage. She is to become head of the Federal Employment Agency – and will again have to do with the minimum wage, which is set to rise to twelve euros this year. Employees and employers of the self-governing authority presented the cornerstones of a personnel package on Tuesday and propose Nahles for the office. A decision by the board of directors is still pending, and the federal government still has to agree. But it is now being led by party colleague Olaf Scholz.
Scholz and Nahles once appeared as a team, wanting to lead the SPD to the Chancellery together. She as SPD leader from the Willy Brandt House, he as Vice Chancellor and from the Ministry of Finance. That was the plan after the defeat in the 2017 federal election. But then the SPD did not succeed in state elections and the European elections either. And some comrades were ashamed of Nahles’ brash, sometimes silly performances. Their work was partially sabotaged by their own people. Shortly before resigning, she had faced the open hostility of many MEPs at a memorable special session of the parliamentary group. The injuries that the party inflicted on itself at the time are still having an impact today, because the SPD had shown itself from its ugliest side. Nahles withdrew completely from politics.
Scholz remembers who once stood by his side
A good year later, she became President of the Federal Post Office and Telecommunications Agency based in Bonn, the authority is subordinate to the Ministry of Finance, which was then headed by Scholz.
Scholz remembers who once stood by his side, as the past few years have shown. When the SPD was to be given dual leadership after Nahles’ failure, he applied for the SPD presidency with the experienced Brandenburg state politician Klara Geywitz. He knows Geywitz well privately and appreciates her. They failed. While Scholz made a comeback as a candidate for Chancellor in the summer of 2020, Geywitz found a new job at the State Audit Office as head of the audit area, but her political skills were just as little used there as those of Andrea Nahles in Bonn. When Scholz occupied his federal cabinet, he brought Geywitz back onto the stage as the new construction minister.
Scholz also thought about Nahles’ future early on. Last summer he said in an interview with SZ that he would be happy to see Nahles return to politics. After the election victory, it was initially said that she could perhaps become Federal Minister of Labor again. After all, she had earned a very good reputation as a specialist politician in this office in the years 2013 to 2017 and then, as head of the SPD, did the conceptual preparation for a citizen benefit that is to replace Hartz IV.
But it would have been difficult to mediate in the party and parliamentary group if Hubertus Heil, who has been in charge of the ministry since 2018, had had to give way for them. As a power man, Nahles is still feared in the party. At the same time, many in the SPD would be happy if she, too, found her way back on track in the slipstream of the federal election winners, at least as head of the Federal Employment Agency. It would be like a late reconciliation.