Proposal in the presidium
Klingbeil and Esken want to lead the SPD as party leaders
The previous SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil and co-party leader Saskia Esken
© Jens Krick // Picture Alliance
In the middle of the coalition negotiations, the SPD has a leadership issue to clarify. There are signs of a very noiseless renovation – but this should have an impact on the desired traffic light government.
The previous Secretary General Lars Klingbeil and party leader Saskia Esken want to lead the SPD together in the future. According to information from the German Press Agency, both said this on Monday in an SPD presidium meeting. The presidium followed this unanimously and proposed the personnel to the party executive committee. This shows that the SPD will clarify its open leadership question without major restructuring in the party leadership in parallel with the formation of a government. The SPD leadership is to be elected at a party congress from December 10th to 12th.
In the morning in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”, Esken already pointed out the close cooperation with Klingbeil for many years. The 43-year-old is an “architect of the renewal of the SPD” and she values him very much. As an election campaign manager, Klingbeil played a decisive role in the SPD’s victory in the federal elections.
The end of “Eskabo”, the beginning of Klingbeil and Esken?
The incumbent co-chairman Norbert Walter-Borjans, 69, announced his retirement at the end of October and declared that younger people should now take the helm. He and Esken took office at the top of the SPD in December 2019 after a lengthy selection process. At that time, a party congress confirmed a membership decision, with which the successor to the resigned party and parliamentary group leader Andrea Nahles was clarified. At that time, Olaf Scholz, who ran together with the Brandenburg politician Klara Geywitz, was inferior to Esken and Walter-Borjans.
Even now it cannot be ruled out that further applicants for the party chairmanship will register before the party congress – but it is unlikely in the clearly pacified party. Several SPD deputies such as Labor Minister Hubertus Heil have already announced that they want to continue to be deputies.
The change at the top of the SPD should also affect the coalition negotiations with the Greens and the FDP. Walter-Borjans had made it clear that the party leaders should not be represented in the government in the future either – even if this were possible according to the statutes.
Esken said on ARD that it would of course be exciting to work as a minister in a future coalition. In the past two years, however, she has also “shown effectiveness” as party leader. Klingbeil was also said to have ambitions for the office of defense minister.