Speech at the SPD party conference: Scholz inspires his comrades

Traffic light dispute, budget crisis, poor poll numbers: things are not going well for the Chancellor and the SPD right now. But at the party conference, Scholz appeared combative and social democratic – he inspired his comrades.

Anyone who wanted to know how grateful Social Democrats can be just had to listen and watch SPD leader Saskia Esken. She stood there at the lectern, moved to tears. “Touched by the heart,” she said, halting and moved by the fact that Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat, had just been publicly resurrected in just under an hour. “Everyone in the room could feel that you were at home here,” said Esken enthusiastically, because things that were self-evident had rarely been so longed for in the SPD as they are today.

They wanted to cheer. They finally wanted to be able to be proud again. They wanted to hear Scholz talk in a way that some people only know from hearsay. Just social democratic. The Chancellor knew this and made at least as much effort today as his comrades before.

Cheers even before it started

In any case, his party had delivered. With sensational election results for the party leadership and board, they signaled to their chancellor yesterday: Olaf, the SPD is standing. Now it’s your turn. When he came to the desk, they were standing again. And up. Cheers before it even started.

The fact that, unlike in the Bundestag, the Chancellor did not put a speaker’s folder with a federal eagle in front of him, but only a small bulletin board and then ignored it for an hour: a reassuring sign for everyone who had hoped for exactly that. Nobody here had appointed a moderating traffic light chairman. The party wanted its chancellor to spread the smell of social democratic stables. Apparently at least partially successful.

Social democratic Nodes of longing

“We are proud that you are one of us,” said party leader Esken later, sounding a bit relieved. This “truly social democrat,” as Scholz once dubbed himself, took a long time to deliver his speech. The Chancellor meandered through the passage of time about Corona, Ukraine, the energy crisis, the Middle East war and the refugee issue. The audience and applause reacted a bit like they do to government declarations by a traffic light chancellor: dutifully.

It took a good 28 minutes for the comrades in the room to enjoy what the Chancellor called out to them when he arrived at the current budget crisis: “One thing is clear to me. There will be no dismantling of the welfare state in this situation.” Then it burst, the social democratic knot of longing.

No Traffic light dispute path moderator – briefly

With ever-increasing applause, the 600 delegates supported their rediscovered Social Democratic Chancellor through his speech. When Scholz then exclaimed on the topic of right-wing extremism that no one should have right-wing radical ideas just because they were feeling bad, they then got up from their chairs again and for a brief moment the SPD and Scholz were completely with themselves.

The fact that the Chancellor didn’t even mention the word debt brake in his hour-long speech, that he couldn’t think of much more about the budget crisis than the Scholzomatic construct “he wanted to convey confidence that it would succeed”: a gift.

Because there was even that: a Scholz who, for a brief moment, was not a moderator of the traffic light dispute, but rather sighed almost humanly in the quarrel and annoyance of the FDP and the Greens: “I really didn’t need some of what happened there.”

Criticism only from Jusos

After the speech, after five minutes of standing applause and warm hugs from two SPD chairmen who appeared relieved, 40 delegates wanted to respond to the Chancellor. He smiled pleasantly when the first person called out to his chancellor: “That was good. That was awesome. That was touching.” So far, so friendly.

By the time Juso boss Philipp Türmer arrived, the brief moment of happiness was already over. “Whoever is on the defensive has to play on the attack,” shouted Türmer. “Dear Olaf. You are the head of the government and not Robert and Christian’s couples therapist.” Dear Olaf stood there in the hall and grinned the way CSU boss Markus Söder had once described it: smurfy.

The people, shouted the Juso boss, want empathy and explanation, not a moderator of power. “If you order a tour from me, you will get it,” Scholz once explained. The Juso boss now handed the Chancellor an order form. “Olaf, I hereby order it. And we are urgently waiting for delivery.”

Scholz should be happy

Not everyone in the room laughed. For some, the riotous Jusos, who subsequently became attached to the Chancellor and his migration policy, were spoilsports. Others, on the other hand, were not only proud of their Chancellor, but also of their party, which held an honest debate today. In any case, Scholz should, all in all, be happy going into the complicated budget negotiations.

And Scholz will have noted with satisfaction that a certain Franz Müntefering, the former party leader and gnarled soul understander of the SPD, also gave five minutes of standing applause here in the hall at the end.

It was Müntefering who had once called out to Scholz when he lost his job as SPD general secretary: “Olaf, you are still so young. There will be something for you.” Müntefering certainly did not think about the job as the fourth Social Democratic Chancellor at the time.