The SPD board discusses the state of the party at a meeting. What content does she want to put forward when it comes to the federal election campaign? And what does the party expect from its chancellor?
“We understand” – that’s how one could interpret the statements of SPD politicians this week, especially Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “We, especially as Social Democrats, have to be very careful. We have to think about those who work hard every day, who get up in the morning, drive to production, who work as single parents. Work must be rewarded.”
In keeping with this, the Seeheimer Kreis, the conservative wing of the SPD, published a paper on Tuesday. Title: “Strengthening the working middle”. “We have to focus more on the working middle than the SPD does,” said Dirk Wiese, spokesman for the Seeheimer Kreis. “I would even call it the working family that is out and about every day, gets up, takes the children to school, is worried about daycare, and perhaps also worried about caring for their parents.”
He wants to get back to the real problems that people discuss at the dinner table. How safe is my job? What does the future look like for my children? Who takes care of the elderly parents? These are exactly the topics that should be discussed at the party executive board meeting.
Focus on economy and internal security
After this week’s poor economic figures, the state of the economy and the associated jobs are of course at the top of the list. For many in the SPD it is clear that the electricity price for German industry is too high.
The second focus of the retreat could be the topic of internal security; the SPD has already made a significant contribution here in the past few weeks. Borders closed, deportation flights organized, stricter laws formulated. Actually, this is not a core issue for the SPD, but the political competition, both the CDU/CSU and the far right and left, are trying to score points with the issue.
The SPD has to react, but it also has to make a name for itself in its own field, and that’s where the third issue comes into play: pensions. The coalition partner FDP is reluctant and does not want to support the pension package as agreed. But the party wants to show its edge this time, says parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich. “We should concentrate on stabilizing pensions. Stable pensions are also important for future generations, the basic concept remains, and that’s what I demand.”
Demands from the party to Scholz
But showing the edge also requires an SPD chancellor who not only moderates between the traffic light partners, but also makes it clear what his party’s line is, says Manuela Schwesig. “That’s why, I think, the time has now come for Olaf Scholz to move forward more strongly and say clearly how he imagines the major social issues: the economy, but also the topic of, for example, migration – he has that now also done – but also on the subject of social issues.”
Dirk Wiese has at least noticed progress when the Chancellor joins the parliamentary group in the Bundestag. “This is a chancellor who appears differently, more determined, also in the debates in the German Bundestag. But of course: They no longer make the chancellor, I come from North Rhine-Westphalia, a Rhinelander, but I think we also have good experiences with Hanseatic chancellors made.”
The last Hanseatic Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, fell over a constructive vote of no confidence. Nobody in the SPD wants that at the moment.