As of: 01/30/2023 9:41 p.m
A new state parliament will be elected in Hesse in autumn. Federal Interior Minister Faeser is likely to be SPD top candidate – according to media reports, she wants to remain in office despite the election campaign.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser probably wants to head the ministry even in the event of a top SPD candidate until the state elections in Hesse. She had agreed on this with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, first reported the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and later the “Handelsblatt”.
Accordingly, the Hessian SPD chairwoman will only move to Wiesbaden to become Prime Minister if she wins the election. According to reports, in the event of a defeat, Faeser should remain in Berlin and not go to Hesse as opposition leader.
“Hessen summit” should bring clarity
On Friday, Faeser wants to comment on her plans at the “Hessengipel”, the closed conference of the Hessian state association. According to the reports, it is considered certain that she will declare her top candidate for the October 8 election there. A spokesman for the Hessian SPD spoke with a view to a possible double function of “speculation”. On Friday, however, “a wise decision” will be made. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior declined to comment on the report.
Faeser: “Heart in Hesse”
With the sentence “My heart is in Hesse” at a party conference last spring, Faeser fueled many of the expectations of the Hessian SPD. 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. Before moving to Berlin, Faeser had been active in Hessian local and state politics since 1996 and was a member of the state parliament for 18 years.
Almost all parties represented in the Hessian state parliament have already declared which top personnel they will campaign with – apart from the SPD and the Left Party. However, Faeser is the undisputed number one in her national association, so she is expected to be the top candidate. The CDU is entering the race with the incumbent prime minister, Boris Rhein. Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir wants to stand for the Greens, who govern together with the CDU.
CDU ahead in polls
An election victory for the SPD in Hesse is anything but certain due to the strong competition from the CDU and the Greens. In the autumn, the CDU received 27 percent of the votes in a survey by Infratest Dimap on behalf of Hessischer Rundfunk, while the Greens and SPD each landed 22 percent.