SPD party congress
Klingbeil and Esken new SPD dual leadership – Kühnert new General Secretary
Saturday afternoon in Berlin. The SPD federal party conference has elected Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken as the new dual leadership. The previous Secretary General received 86.3 percent of the valid votes cast at the party congress on Saturday. Esken was confirmed in office with 76.7 percent. The previous co-chair, Norbert Walter-Borjans, was no longer running. Lars Klingbeil previously appealed in his application speech for the SPD party chairmanship to a feeling of unity in order to make further electoral successes possible. “I am firmly convinced that we are on the threshold of a social democratic decade. Not as an end in itself, but because we have an idea of what is good for the people and our country in the next few years.” As the successor to Klingbeil as General Secretary, the 32-year-old former Juso boss Kevin Kühnert was elected with around 78 percent of the vote. In purely formal terms, the party congress members then have to confirm the election by postal vote by December 18.
The previous general secretary of the party, Lars Klingbeil, has been elected as the new co-chair of the SPD. Co-chair Saskia Esken was confirmed. Kevin Kühnert was elected as the new General Secretary.
Lars Klingbeil as the new co-boss and Saskia Esken have been elected to the new SPD dual leadership. A largely digital party congress elected the previous Secretary General Klingbeil, 43, on Saturday in Berlin with 86.3 percent of the vote. The 60-year-old party leader Saskia Esken was confirmed in office with 76.7 percent. The decision still has to be confirmed by postal vote.
When she was first elected head of the SPD two years ago, Esken received 75.9 percent. At that time, Norbert Walter-Borjans had achieved 89.2 percent as co-party leader.
Lars Klingbeil: “We never gave up”
Before his election, Klingbeil said to the approximately 600 delegates: “We have unleashed this country after 16 years, from the must of the conservatives.” He recalled the long past and long low polls of the SPD. “We were written off, we were pitied,” he said. “But we never gave up, never, at any time.” Victory in the federal election is a great opportunity to shape a “social democratic decade”.
Esken said, “We’re going to change this country, we’re going to make it stronger, and we’re going to make it fairer.” She wanted to help the SPD to be “the left people’s party” that the country needed so badly. Social democracy must become a think tank for questions about the future. At the same time Esken was combative and confident about the four state elections in the coming year.
Kevin Kühnert: No “heck of a mess” between the party and the government
In the afternoon, the party congress elected the other leadership team. As expected, the former Juso boss and current SPD vice-president Kevin Kühnert, 32, was elected as the new general secretary. He received 77.78 percent of the vote. He called for a clear division of tasks between the government and the SPD as a party. “For us as the SPD, the parliamentary group and government are our hands that can shape and change reality with skill and ability,” he said. “The party is the head and heart of the social democratic movement.” As general secretary of the SPD, he himself wanted to be “the guardian and carrier of its programs and communicator to a democratic public”. Kühnert emphasized: “We don’t need a ritualized heck of a mess between the grassroots SPD and the government SPD to remind us that our party is still alive.” However, he called for some points in the program to be sharpened, such as the connection between immigration and the shortage of skilled workers, or what exactly the SPD understands by citizens’ insurance. With its personnel decisions, following the election of Olaf Scholz as Federal Chancellor and the assumption of office of the ministers, also as a party, the SPD concludes its personnel list for the start of the joint government with the Greens and the FDP.
The change in the party leadership became necessary because Walter-Borjans is withdrawing. Walter-Borjans and Esken were elected to the top of the SPD in 2019 after an elaborate candidate search, after the then party leader Andrea Nahles resigned. Now Walter-Borjans said: “The SPD, dear comrades, is back.”
NRW state chief Kutschaty moves up to the board
The post of SPD vice-president that became vacant with Kühnert’s move to general secretary was taken over by the SPD state chairman of North Rhine-Westphalia, Thomas Kutschaty. The previous incumbents, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, the new Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz as well as Anke Rehlinger and Serpil Midyatli were re-elected as further party vice.
The SPD party congress had been shortened from the originally planned three days to one day due to the ongoing corona pandemic. Only a week ago, the Social Democrats approved the coalition agreement at a hybrid party congress.
Kühnert: Citizens’ insurance and tax on the wealthy remain issues
In addition to the personal details, the SPD also wanted to prepare for its role as the new chancellor party in terms of content. The Social Democrats attach great importance to their own content profile.
Kühnert made it clear that the SPD also wanted to pursue goals that did not make it into the coalition agreement. This included a pension system for all workers, a citizens’ insurance and an “adequate taxation” of huge assets, said Kühnert of the “taz” (weekend). “That’s not folklore for election campaigns.”