With a lot of support, the SPD is sending Katarina Barley again as the top candidate in the European elections. Chancellor Scholz should support the election campaign. The SPD wants to get out of the poll low with a clear stance against right-wing populism.
The SPD leadership has sworn its members into the European election campaign. At a party conference in Berlin, delegates re-elected former Federal Justice Minister Katarina Barley as the top candidate for the European elections in June.
The Vice President of the European Parliament received 147 of the 149 delegate votes cast. That was 98.7 percent – and practically as much approval as when she was the last top candidate five years ago.
Barley targets Orban
In her speech, Barley spoke of a “choice of direction” on June 9th. It’s about strengthening democracy against internal and external enemies. She specifically named Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who repeatedly blackmails his EU partners. Orban is the biggest enemy who is blocking Europe in four areas – aid for Ukraine, the EU budget, EU enlargement and Sweden’s accession to NATO, said the 55-year-old. Orban is stuffing his pockets with money and wants to rebuild Hungary “so that he can never be pushed out of power again.”
The European Parliament has given the EU Commission the means to block EU subsidies. “Unfortunately, she uses it too rarely, too timidly and too inconsistently. And when she does, she gives in before the conditions are met,” she said, referring to the payment of several billion euros in funding to Hungary. “It’s time for clear messages to Viktor Orban.”
Barley described the AfD’s plans to leave the EU as “madness” given the German economy’s strong economic dependence on Europe.
Scholz is counting on a “clear vote against the right”
With Barley as the top candidate, the SPD won 15.8 percent of the votes in the last European elections in 2019. It was the party’s worst result in a European election to date. In addition to Barley, Olaf Scholz should be part of the election campaign. Both showed themselves as a team at the conference.
Scholz called Barley, who has made a name for herself as a fighter against violations of the rule of law in the EU and against right-wing populists, “a strong voice for Europe.” He described the EU vote as “a very pivotal election”. It’s about tackling parties that campaign against Europe. He is counting on a “clear vote against the right”. “The European elections are a chance to do that by voting for democratic parties and not the right-wing ones,” he said in his 20-minute free speech, for which he received a standing ovation.
Scholz once again assured Ukraine of Germany’s continued solidarity in the defensive fight against Russia. He called on the other EU states to supply more weapons. In the current year, Germany has provided more than seven billion euros, more than half of what the other EU countries did together. “It cannot be the case that Germany has such a large share,” emphasized the Chancellor. “It has to be our contribution to do a lot. But it also has to be everyone else’s contribution to do a lot too.”
Klingbeil describes AfD and “BSW” as “enemies of Europe”
In the afternoon, the delegates want to fill the additional 95 places on the list for the election on June 9th and adopt the European election program. The SPD’s poll numbers at the federal level are poor – the party is currently at around 14 percent. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil therefore prepared the members for a “tough election campaign”.
“The enemies of democracy have set out,” said Klingbeil. “The enemies from within and from outside, the Trumps, the Putins, the Höckes. Since yesterday we know: also the Wagenknechts,” said Klingbeil and attacked the newly founded “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” not only because of the EU-critical positions and his Ukraine policy sharpened.
The BSW, which held its founding party conference yesterday, even cited former SPD Chancellor Willy Brandt in criticizing German arms deliveries. “But Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt would never have abandoned their European friends, like the BSW is planning to do,” he said. The SPD is firmly on Ukraine’s side.