Before the important state elections in September, there are rumblings in the SPD. For months, the party has been clearly behind the Greens and far behind the Union and AfD in surveys at around twelve percent. Increasingly criticized within the party: the chairmen Bärbel Bas and Lars Klingbeil, who are also ministers in the black-red federal government.
There are proposals for a special SPD party conference in the fall and demands for Bas and Klingbeil to decide between party leadership and ministerial positions. In recent months there has been repeated criticism that they do not have enough space to take care of the party. In addition, the coalition's reform plans are triggering criticism.
Berlin's top candidate calls for a change of course
The Berlin SPD leader and top candidate for the state elections, Steffen Krach, has now called for a fundamental change in SPD policy in the federal government. We need to change course overall, he said on Deutschlandfunk. "If 80 percent of Germans say that the reform package that was presented at the beginning of July is going in the wrong direction and is currently unbalanced, then you can't stand up and say that everything is right." This particularly applies to the SPD, which wants to stand for social justice.
He again called for plans to cut housing benefit to be reversed. “This often affects single parents and many pensioners who can no longer afford the rent.” Many people who worked hard needed the subsidy. “I really think this is absolutely the wrong approach,” said Krach.
He was more cautious about the internal party personnel debate. Such a debate will not convince anyone. “We will convince people again with content.”
Demand for a “personal restart”
But several groups see the personnel issue differently. It was only on Thursday that the board of the SPD Berlin-Mariendorf department approved a paper in which Bas and Klingbeil were asked to choose between party office and ministerial office. In addition, the SPD structure called for a special party conference in the fall as a basis for a “change of course” by the SPD and a “restart of the coalition”.
It was said that a credible new start in terms of content must be combined with a “personal fresh start in the party”. "The SPD chairmanship must be separated from ministerial positions in the Merz cabinet." If Bas and Klingbeil decide to exercise their ministerial office and not become party chairman, the SPD Mariendorf will demand a primary election for their successors.
A few days earlier, similar sounds had come from the Migration and Diversity Working Group in the SPD. She also called for a special party conference to elect a new party leadership this fall. “There is massive irritation among the population regarding social democracy in our country,” said the AG chairmen Mehria Ashuftah and Orkan Özdemir to Spiegel. There was talk of an “existence-threatening” crisis.
In the daily topics, Özdemir reported great support for the initiative at the grassroots level, but also at official level. "Because of course the comrades - especially those who are campaigning - feel this burden of the federal SPD on their shoulders."
Lauterbach: “Full trust” in Bas and Klingbeil
The SPD politician Karl Lauterbach, however, stood behind the party leadership. He said in the ARD morning magazine that he had “full trust” in Klingbeil and Bas. The criticism of the two is “excessive, unjustified and untimely.” The federal government is “in the middle of a huge reform process”. Lauterbach called on his party to work constructively on the upcoming reforms.
“The SPD must show a more social democratic hand in government,” he also said. After the reforms, for example, when it comes to care and the health system, people should see that “something has become fairer for us”. “But I don’t criticize my own party leaders for that,” warned Lauterbach.
Schwesig relies on distance
It is still the second and third ranks in the party that openly criticize. The upcoming state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin are likely to have a disciplinary effect. There, however, the Social Democrats are threatened with a new disaster. In Saxony-Anhalt, with poll numbers between five and seven percent, they even have to worry about getting back into the state parliament; in Berlin, the SPD has to fear a drop from 18.4 percent in the last election to just twelve or 13 percent.
A glimmer of hope is in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the popular SPD Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig could defend her office despite expected losses and a strong AfD here too. In order to achieve this, however, she is primarily focusing on distancing herself from the federal party and its dual leadership of Bas and Klingbeil. Not only in pension policy, Schwesig recently loudly announced that she does not support the plans of the black-red coalition, for example the plans to abolish the early pension without deductions or a care reform that she described as "inhumane".
Klingbeil: “Unrest is always there”
Bas himself recently admitted in a ZDF summer interview that no one could be satisfied with the current situation. "We have to reposition ourselves." The SPD also needs to “become more visible” as a party. However, panic is now “not a good solution”.
Bas rejected criticism of the work of the government and the coalition with the Union. Rather, the SPD had “implemented a lot” here, she said. Only in the debate about pension reform did the Federal Labor Minister make it clear that the government commission's recommendations were "not a desired result" for her.
“There is always unrest in the SPD,” Klingbeil also tried to appease this Wednesday. However, due to tough austerity requirements for social benefits, he is currently even more criticized within the party than Bas. Regarding the call for the special party conference, Klingbeil simply said that the party leadership had received a clear order to "go into government on the basis of the coalition agreement." Now the SPD “cannot duck away”.
