State election: Faeser remains Minister as the SPD’s top candidate in Hesse

state election
Faeser remains Minister as the SPD’s top candidate in Hesse

According to a media report, Nancy Faeser will initially remain Federal Minister of the Interior even if the SPD is the top candidate in Hesse. Faeser had agreed on this with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported.

This Friday, Faeser, who is also the SPD chairwoman in Hesse, is to explain her plans at an SPD event in Friedewald – including a possible top candidate for the state elections.

A spokesman for the SPD Hessen told the German Press Agency on Monday evening when asked about the “SZ” report that it was “speculation”. On Friday, however, “a wise decision” will be made. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Chancellery did not want to comment on the report.

With the sentence “My heart is in Hesse” at a party conference last spring, Faeser fueled many of the expectations of the Hessian comrades. Since then, however, the 52-year-old has stubbornly avoided making a clear commitment to whether she also sees her political future in her home state.

Almost all parties represented in the Hessian state parliament have already declared which top personnel they will campaign with for the vote on October 8 – apart from the SPD and the Left Party.

The Christian Democrats are entering the race with the incumbent Prime Minister, Boris Rhein. Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir wants to stand in for the Greens, who are currently co-governing.

An election victory for the SPD in Hesse is anything but certain due to the strong competition from the CDU and the Greens. In an election poll last fall, the CDU received 27 percent of the votes, while the Greens and SPD each landed 22 percent of the voters’ approval.

dpa