Berlin
Giffey does not want to run for SPD state chairmanship again
The current deputy mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, does not want to run again in the board election of her regional association in May. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
SPD state chairwoman Franziska Giffey will not run again at the next party conference. The question now is who will succeed her – and what that means for the election in 2026.
“In my view, in order to overcome the enormous challenges we face, it is crucial that responsibility is spread across several shoulders, that we broaden our party and bring more people into responsibility who will take on these major future challenges.” To make this possible, she decided not to run again for the state chairmanship of the Berlin SPD in the party elections in May.
The announcement is not entirely surprising: Giffey came under massive criticism within the Berlin SPD after losing the repeat election in February. Not only the Jusos, but also several district associations spoke out against a coalition with the CDU, for which Giffey and her co-state chairman Raed Saleh were campaigning. In a membership decision there was only a narrow majority for black and red.
At the state party conference last May, the delegates also decided that politicians who are senators, state secretaries or parliamentary group leaders are no longer allowed to be in the majority on the seven-member executive state executive board. According to the resolution, the dual leadership should “not entirely” consist of people who also play a key role in the government. So far that’s how it is. Either Giffey or Saleh would have to give up the office.
“I will concentrate with all my strength on the other tasks that I carry out for our party,” she wrote. Giffey is a Senator for Economic Affairs, a member of the House of Representatives, coordinator of the SPD-led Senate administrations and mayor. “My commitment continues to be for our SPD – especially for the upcoming election campaign for the partial repeat of the federal election and the European elections.”
Will Raed Saleh run again?
The SPD parliamentary group said it had noted Giffey’s decision with great respect. “In difficult times, she ran two election campaigns and did or is doing very good work for Berlin as governing mayor and mayor.” It is still unclear whether faction and party leader Saleh will run again at the party conference.
Giffey resigned from her position as Governing Mayor following the SPD’s losses in the repeated election to the Berlin House of Representatives in February. In 2021, she resigned from her position as Federal Minister for Family Affairs in the context of plagiarism allegations. Her doctorate in political science was subsequently revoked because of deception in adopting third-party content in her dissertation. After the election in September 2021, Giffey moved into the Berlin town hall.