New SPD parliamentary group: younger, more diverse, more female

With the SPD’s election victory, a new generation is entering the Bundestag. The parliamentary group is becoming significantly younger and more female. Today they met for the first joint session in the Bundestag.

8.30 a.m. in the Reichstag building on the plenary hall level. They stand in front of the ID card for new members of the Bundestag and are amazed at the new, very young faces of the SPD. “It’s awesome,” says 30-year-old Tim Klüssendorf. He is a direct candidate from Lübeck and one of over 100 new SPD members. For him these are goose bumps. “First to see the building from the outside and then they ask you: ‘Are you also a new MP?’ And I could say, ‘Yes.’ That’s really cool, “says Klüssendorf.

The new group has 206 members. She is younger and more feminine. With 41 MPs, twice as many come from the East as in the last legislative period. The first joint meeting will take place today in the plenary hall of the Bundestag. “This is a special moment,” says the incumbent SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. “We have a parliamentary group in which more than half are new. An average age of 45 years.” Mützenich is older at 62 and he wants to stay as parliamentary group leader.

Mützenich as an organizing hand at the top

Yesterday the chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz took the oath of loyalty, who would soon like to sit across from Mützenich as Chancellor in the Bundestag on the government bench. “Without him, the party chairmen, the general secretary and I would not have made it,” said Mützenich. On the other hand, Scholz praised: “Rolf Mützenich is a good man. We need him there” – as an organizing hand at the head of the parliamentary group.

Actually – it is said – Mützenich didn’t feel like it anymore after he took over the job of parliamentary group leader in 2019 after Andrea Nahles’ sudden exit. Today this is not an issue for Mützenich. “I am always amazed that people think about my lust. I am running as parliamentary group leader and will do my part to ensure that Olaf Scholz becomes Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

Tomorrow they want to elect the parliamentary group leader, but today we should first get to know each other. But first the search for a seat in the Reichstag building follows.

Kühnert: “A moving moment”

The parliamentary group is newly formed and also the political professional Kevin Kühnert, ex-Juso boss, acting SPD federal vice, stands in front of the plenary hall, looks at the ceiling and is honestly moved by the time and place. “First of all, it’s a very moving moment personally,” says Kühnert. He, who has known the Berlin politics business for years, is now a new member of the Bundestag, a beginner like many here. “To go into the plenary hall as a member of parliament, and if you haven’t been touched, you’ve got nerves like wire ropes.”

Kühnert has ensured that a swing of the Jusos now sits in the faction, that this faction is younger, more diverse, more feminine. 56 percent are under 40 years old, 25 percent even 30 years or younger.

“Lots of momentum in the booth”

Kühnert calmly dismisses the warning from the FDP and the Union that this parliamentary group has infiltrated the left and is therefore not a reliable negotiating and government partner. “We didn’t come in here as a K group to turn out to be something completely different from what we started out,” says Kühnert. You have been elected as a representative of the SPD and that is how you will act.

Nadja Sthamer, the 30-year-old direct candidate from Leipzig, is one of them. She’s just getting her temporary parliamentary pass. She is experiencing this new chapter in her political life with humility, gratitude and a lot of excitement, she says. The fact that the SPD is getting younger is an advantage for them. “I think there is a lot of momentum going into the booth overall with all the new ones who compete here. And that’s good,” she says and laughs.

Mützenich is hoping for quick negotiations

Already this week the SPD want to sound out with the Greens and FDP. The invitation is available, says parliamentary group leader Mützenich, who has neither desire nor pleasure in staging. He is now asking everyone to be serious.

Because Mützenich still has the scenes in mind when the FDP, Greens and Union held court in the evening on the balcony of the Parliamentary Society in the later failed explorations. “I think both small parties have to be clear about the fact that the drama that they were given here on balconies four years ago does not do justice to the tasks.” He hopes for quick negotiations.

Kühnert believes in an alliance with the Greens and the FDP

The fact that the Greens are already considering whether Habeck or Baerbock should become vice-chancellor is, for someone like Mützenich, annoying noises that distract from the actual task of forming a government. “We will solve difficulties along the way,” he says. Today, however, the new SPD parliamentary group will first come together.

Kevin Kühnert certainly believes in the “traffic light”, in Scholz and that at some point everyone will notice that Armin Laschet has lost this election. Incidentally, for the SPD federal vice-president, his new job as a member of the Bundestag is not just a new job. “You just feel the responsibility,” he says. “That sounds cheap, but when you stand here in the Reichstag building, that feeling slowly seeps in.”