Parties
SPD struggles with consequences of European elections
After the poor European election result for the SPD, critical voices are growing louder – even within the party. Photo
© Jan Woitas/dpa
After the disastrous election result, there is unrest among the comrades. However, Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister stresses that the Chancellor is the undisputed “number one” in his party.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil backed Chancellor Olaf Scholz: In his opinion, he should be seen as the “undisputed number one” of the party. “Olaf Scholz really has the trust of the SPD, and I see no alternative at all,” said Weil on the ARD program “Report from Berlin.”
In his opinion, “all relevant parts of the SPD” agree “that we will go into the next election campaign with Olaf Scholz – but then hopefully on a much better basis than was the case this time.”
It makes no sense for the party to publicly quarrel now, Weil warned. It is more like after a lost football match: “You have to speak frankly to each other in the locker room, but then go back onto the field as one.”
The SPD received only 13.9 percent of the vote in the European elections, its worst result in a nationwide vote. Subsequently, several SPD politicians expressed the expectation that Scholz would be more aggressive in the traffic light coalition in promoting the core concerns of the Social Democrats. On Sunday, leading SPD politicians met for a special meeting of the party executive committee to discuss the consequences. The results were not initially announced.
Maier calls for focus on “working middle”
The Thuringian SPD leader Maier called for his party to focus more on “the working middle class.” These people have been badly shaken and unsettled by the crises and are wondering who represents their interests. This is especially true in East Germany. “It is no longer possible to explain to anyone why the social gap between East and West is still so wide 34 years after reunification,” said Maier. “The SPD has failed to make this social imbalance in Germany an issue.”
He has been appealing for some time “urgently to the party executive and the Chancellery to finally take action,” said Maier. “But so far without success.” He does not understand “why the SPD does not put the question of justice on the political agenda. That is in our DNA.”
A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia in September. In recent polls, the AfD was well ahead of the CDU, while the SPD was in the single digits.
Because: The Chancellor’s options for action are overestimated
Weil said that what needs to change is the cooperation within the traffic light coalition. People are overestimating “what a Chancellor can actually do in a situation like this, where coalition partners (…) do not always show the necessary level of constructiveness.” The three coalition parties are now facing a very difficult task. “And if they are wisely advised, they will agree on a common course.”
Scholz also urged the red-green-yellow coalition in interviews over the weekend to pull together after the poor results of the traffic light parties in the European elections. He also called for a willingness to cooperate in the negotiations on the 2025 budget.
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s budget plan is due to be presented on July 3. The FDP leader is insisting on a strict austerity course in order to comply with the debt brake. After the setback for the traffic light parties in the European elections, the success of the budget negotiations is a real test for the coalition. The Bundestag usually discusses the budget in the autumn.
SPD left puts pressure on
The SPD Left is now putting pressure on the government to prevent cuts in core areas that are particularly important to it. The SPD group Forum Democratic Left (DL21) decided to initiate an internal party membership petition for “a federal budget for 2025 (…) that bears a social democratic signature,” as it says in a statement.
“We want to ask whether the SPD should agree to a budget cut,” said DL-21 co-chair Jan Dieren to “Spiegel”. “In times when democracy is under pressure, prices are rising and many can barely afford to live, it is wrong to save,” warned the SPD member of the Bundestag. “On the contrary: the state must invest massively.”