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Status: 03.11.2021 2:21 p.m.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil could become the new SPD leader. The 43-year-old from Lower Saxony is considered a pragmatist and crisis-proof. One who can win elections.
Lars Klingbeil is considered a top favorite to succeed Norbert Walter-Borjans at the top of the SPD, especially since the 43-year-old also stands for the generational change called for by the outgoing party leader. In the party, the general secretary still has the best chances. In the event of a candidacy, he can clearly count on his election as chairman. And a candidacy seems likely, especially according to his most recent statements at the RND.
I am very honored that my name is mentioned for the role of the SPD chairman: “The chairmanship is” a very important, traditional and attractive office in which you can achieve a lot “.
A pragmatic bridge builder
Klingbeil is considered a pragmatist who belongs to the conservative Seeheimer Kreis of the SPD. At the same time, he is also accepted by the left as a successful bridge builder, with Kevin Kühnert he maintains a close relationship of trust. In 2017 he was proposed as general secretary by the then SPD leader Martin Schulz – at that time he was less than 40 years old, and the SPD had just achieved the worst Bundestag election result in its history. Klingbeil was supposed to organize the renewal of the party in the opposition. But it turned out differently: The Jamaica negotiations collapsed, the SPD painfully decided to revive the GroKo. Schulz dropped out about two months after Klingbeil was elected Secretary General.
The then SPD leader Schulz nominated Klingbeil as general secretary (here at the federal party conference on December 9, 2017 in Berlin).
Image: dpa
Klingbeil remained in his post under SPD leader Andrea Nahles and their successors Saskia Esken and Walter-Borjans. He is also assigned a decisive role in reuniting the party, which was deeply divided after the Nahles’ withdrawal and the agonizing search for chairpersons, and in making the Willy Brandt House into a powerful party headquarters again. Klingbeil played a key role in organizing the Bundestag election campaign.
“Successful SPD election campaign”
“As general secretary, the successful SPD campaign in the federal election campaign is also largely going ‘home’ within the party with Lars Klingbeil, which of course gives him a high reputation,” says political scientist Thorsten Faas in an interview tagesschau.de. But it is even more important that the party appeared so unified. “The fact that there was no friction between party, parliamentary group and government – that too was a great success for Klingbeil.” Exactly these aspects would pay off and be needed at the party leadership.
According to Faas, the SPD campaign could only be so successful “because here, too, the party and the candidate worked well together.” Scholz would get along well with an SPD leader, Klingbeil. “The Scholz-Klingbeil relationship would certainly not burden the work in the government in any way, on the contrary,” said the political scientist from the Free University of Berlin.
Klingbeil is currently organizing the coalition negotiations with the Greens and the FDP.
Direct mandate in Lower Saxony
The 43-year-old has made a name for himself as a spokesman for network policy and as a defense politician. For this reason, some consider him a candidate for the post of Minister of Defense. However, the regional proportional representation could speak against this. Klingbeil comes from Lower Saxony, his direct mandate in the constituency of Rotenburg I / Heidekreis he recently won with 47.6 percent of the vote. And with Hubertus Heil as a possible labor minister, a Lower Saxony would already be represented in the new cabinet.
Klingbeil was born in Soltau and grew up in neighboring Munster, a small town with one of the largest Bundeswehr bases in Germany. His father worked as a professional soldier, his mother as a retail saleswoman. Klingbeil became involved as a school spokesman and joined the SPD in 1996. Klingbeil did his community service in the Hanover station mission. In the city he also studied political science, history and sociology. Klingbeil also worked in the constituency office of the SPD Chancellor at the time, Gerhard Schröder, and made local politics. After several stays in the USA and a successor guest appearance in 2005, Klingbeil has been sitting in the Bundestag for his home region since 2009.
As a duo with Schwesig?
When the SPD was looking for new party leaders after Nahles withdrew in autumn 2019, Klingbeil did not run. He justified this at the time by saying that he had not found the right woman to run for the dual leadership that was introduced at the time. He is said to have hoped for a candidacy from Manuela Schwesig. She led the party provisionally at the time, but did not want to become head of the SPD on a permanent basis. It has not yet been decided whether that is any different in the meantime. In response to a corresponding question in Report from Berlin replied the head of government from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania evasively. It is also still unclear whether co-party leader Esken will continue – or whether Scholz will take over a ministerial office in a cabinet. On Monday, the SPD wants to clarify the future leadership – and how it should be.