Former mayor
Change to the Wagenknecht camp: SPD politician Geisel settles accounts with comrades
Thomas Geisel (SPD), former mayor of Düsseldorf
© Florian Gaertner/ / Picture Alliance
Thomas Geisel, an SPD member for 40 years and once Mayor of Düsseldorf, turns his back on his comrades – and turns to Sahra Wagenknecht. In a kind of circular he sharply criticized the SPD.
Yikes? It was 12:19 p.m. when an email made political Berlin sit up and take notice. It’s an invitation. Next Monday, the association “Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht” (BSW) wants to take the next step and present the official founding of the party to the capital’s press at midday. So far, so known. However, the invitation also lists some of the future staff with whom the renegade ex-left Wagenknecht obviously wants to lead their new party to success. Among them: the former left-wing MP Fabio De Masi and Thomas Geisel.
The second personality in particular is causing a stir. Geisel, 60, has been a member of the SPD for 40 years and was once mayor of Düsseldorf (2014 – 2020). Despite being voted out, he was apparently toying with running for mayor again. Why the change?
Shortly after the invitation to the press conference, a kind of letter of explanation was circulating in SPD circles. Signed: “Your Thomas Geisel”. The letter, dated this Thursday, is due to this star before. First they had “Rheinische Post” reported about it. The letter, which is just over two A4 pages long, is a justification for switching to the Wagenknecht camp – and a settlement with the SPD.
“As you can imagine, this decision was not easy for me,” writes Geisel. He was only recently honored for his 40 years of SPD membership. “I said back then that everyone could rely on me to remain a Social Democrat for the rest of my life.” Nothing should change about that, writes Geisel. However, the following lines raise considerable doubts about this.
“Become homeless in today’s SPD”
According to his own statements, Geisel doesn’t just want to be a supporter in the background. He writes that he wants to lead the BSW list for the European elections in June this year, together with De Masi. It is not clear from the letter whether Geisel will also join the newly founded Wagenknecht party and consequently leave the SPD. However, the BSW candidacy is unlikely to be compatible with SPD party membership.
The Düsseldorf SPD leader Zanda Martens is also of this opinion “Rheinische Post” reported. According to the newspaper, Martens said that no declaration of resignation had been received on Thursday afternoon. However, if that doesn’t happen and Geisel becomes involved with the Wagenknecht party, a party expulsion process would have to be initiated.
According to the letter, Geisel no longer sees his political home in the SPD anyway. Social Democrats in the tradition of Willy Brandt or Helmut Schmidt have “become homeless in today’s SPD,” the letter says.
This is followed by a general reckoning from an obviously bitter comrade. Against an economic policy in which the Greens would be left to “grind the industry with bans, torture it with bureaucracy” and turn the admired “‘Model Germany’ of the Helmut Schmidt era” into a “case for restructuring”. Against social “benefits, for example in the context of the so-called ‘double boom'”, which would be “distributed on credit at the expense of future generations”. Or against the SPD’s asylum policy, which has been an “ideologically driven policy of denial of reality” for decades because, for example, it would allow “uncontrolled immigration”.
Geisel is also harshly critical of his party’s social and peace policies. For example, he criticizes the fact that the SPD-led federal government wants to make the country “war-ready” and is pursuing an “unprecedented rearmament.” Geisel emphasizes that Russia is waging a war in Ukraine that violates international law. “But Germany should not fuel it with arms deliveries, but rather help ensure that it is ended as quickly as possible.”
In the SPD, Geisel’s move is, well, noted. “He had merit and I regret that he is now putting himself out of action,” said Jochen Ott, chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia star. “He’s probably bored.”
In any case, Geisel is convinced, as he goes on to write, that those who are disappointed with the SPD will find a political home in the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance”. Geisel is full of praise for an “economic policy with expertise” and “left-wing regulatory policy” that the BSW would stand for. He has observed Wagenknecht’s political career for a long time and has met her several times in the past few days. “Of course, everyone has to decide for themselves which path they want to take,” writes Geisel. His decision has been made.
On WDR request Geisel said he would not comment on his involvement with BSW until Monday. According to the newspaper, the “Rheinische Post” also dismissed Geisel and did not want to comment on the details beyond the letter before the upcoming date.
At first it seems everything has been said.