Government: Bas resigns from office - with strong accusations against the CDU

Berlin. It is a resignation that can trigger new shock waves in the black-red federal government: Bärbel Bas also cites attacks from the Union as a reason for her immediate withdrawal as labor minister and SPD leader. The Chancellor's CDU party is in the midst of its own crisis with a shaken coalition partner. In the Willy Brandt House, the remaining co-party leader Lars Klingbeil announced that a federal party conference at the turn of the year should re-elect “the entire SPD leadership team”.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) hopes that outstanding legislative proposals from the Ministry of Labor can now be approved by the cabinet “quickly,” as he says. At the request of the SPD, Alexander Schweitzer is to be the successor at the head of the ministry. He will propose it to the Federal President, says Merz. The former SPD Prime Minister from Rhineland-Palatinate has been in discussion for the highest office in Berlin for some time. He is considered a pragmatist - but it remains to be seen whether implementing reforms such as pensions will be easier with him than with the left-wing Bas party.

At the SPD, the party conference to appoint a new dual leadership is scheduled to take place in December or January. Klingbeil says he thinks this is important “so that we have clarity about the personnel structure and also clarity about the SPD’s programmatic course.” He himself will do everything to ensure the best future position at the top. Klingbeil left it open whether he would run again. However, he wants to stick to the principle of dual leadership.

In the morning, Bas' declaration of resignation, which even comes as a surprise to parts of her political environment, bursts into a CDU crisis retreat lasting several days in Berlin. She cites a personal stroke of fate as the reason - and “the public attacks on me, unfortunately also from the ranks of the coalition partner”. Since she “currently cannot muster the strength” for her government and party work, she wants to give up both positions, said the Duisburg resident.

In her resignation statement, which was also shared on Instagram, Bas initially justified the step with the death of her stepdaughter. The 58-year-old is widowed, her husband Siegfried Ambrosius died in 2020. His jacket is still hanging in her wardrobe years later, the SPD politician revealed in a talk show in the summer. Now the death of the stepdaughter, which takes Bas away again. She needs time to grieve, she writes. “I would like to take enough of these.”

Bas does not specify her violent accusations against the Union. Politicians from the Union recently criticized her sharply for not presenting draft laws on planned reform projects quickly enough - for example in retirement or for a more flexible labor market. They accused her of delaying and blocking reforms.

Merz paid Bas respect for her decision: “As a father and grandfather, I can only imagine how heavy this loss is.” He rejected the allegations against his party at a press conference after the CDU executive committee meeting. “I can say for myself: I only ever discussed matters with her on factual issues, never personally.” In the past three weeks, which were particularly difficult for Bas, he also “demanded every personal, including Christian, consideration” from his party. The CDU did not violate this, but rather expressed sympathy.

Bas, Klingbeil and Schwesig refrained from saying exactly which attacks they meant. All that is remembered from the last few weeks is a sharp attack from the chairman of the influential middle class parliamentary group (PKM) in the Union faction, Christian von Stetten. “The minister is no longer sustainable,” the CDU MP told “Bild” in mid-September. “For months she has been blocking the reforms that our country so urgently needs.” At that point in time, hardly anyone in the CDU knew about her stepdaughter's illness.

The sharp accusations from the SPD leadership surprised many in the CDU. Secretary General Franziska Hoppermann responded with a retaliation. She said that “these moral appeals can also be addressed to the SPD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia, which has initiated a committee of inquiry into the cancer-stricken Minister Ina Scharrenbach.” The committee announced by the SPD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia will focus on the affair surrounding bullying allegations against North Rhine-Westphalia's Home Affairs Minister Scharrenbach.

But it won't be that easy. Like Schwesig, Bas' successor Schweitzer is considered a staunch opponent of the abolition of the pension without deductions after 45 years of contributions. “Anyone who questions this is confusing austerity with justice,” Schweitzer said in August.

Merz insisted that agreements made apply. He also said that with the change in the Ministry of Labor “there should be more of an acceleration of processes.” The draft for the first part of the pension reform was last expected in coalition circles for this October. Merz moved the target for the decision in the Bundestag last week from the end of the year to spring.

Many prominent politicians react to Ba's statement with expressions of sympathy. The Green Party politician Katrin Göring-Eckardt, who held one of the deputy positions during Bas' term as Bundestag President, writes under her post on Instagram: "The merciless attacks on you cast a terrible picture of this type of political debate."