Icon: enlarge
SPD Chancellor candidate Scholz: "I enjoy it very much"
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
His choice was certainly never endangered.
Nevertheless, Olaf Scholz seems relieved when he is nominated as a constituency candidate in Potsdam shortly before 8 p.m. on Friday evening.
92 out of 99 delegates voted for him, one challenger got one vote, five comrades decided for the second.
One vote is invalid.
A somewhat strange event comes to an end in the Ludwigsfelde clubhouse after just under two hours.
It may be intra-party democracy that a candidate for chancellor has to fight back against several opposing candidates in the case of a constituency candidate.
But it is also typically SPD.
The party does not make it easy for its top people.
This is especially true for Scholz, who failed last year in the inner-party race for party chairmanship - and was nevertheless named chancellor candidate in August.
The contradictions of a party that is struggling with itself are also evident this evening.
In the end, the election becomes a Scholz show.
94 percent, a short but combative speech and lots of friendly words - for Scholz, the nomination from the grassroots is a success.
"This is big for me too"
The Vice Chancellor arrives at the Ludwigsfelde clubhouse shortly before 6 p.m.
He seems relaxed.
How does he feel about this appointment, especially in comparison with the big decisions of the past few days?
"I enjoy it a lot," says Scholz.
"This is big for me too."
The party meets under corona conditions.
A total of 99 delegates have come, they are sitting in the great hall and on the stands, with a distance of 1.50 meters and a mask.
The journalists have to work in a different room.
When a small group gathered around Scholz before the constituency conference began, the moderator intervened: "There are currently clusters that are not corona-wise permitted."
The comrades take their places without complaint.
Apparently nobody wants to risk pictures of violations of the hygiene rules here.
Icon: enlarge Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
Scholz inherits the Potsdam constituency from Manja Schüle.
Today's Minister of Science in Brandenburg was the only one in 2017 who was able to win a direct mandate for the SPD in the new federal states.
Scholz therefore speaks of a "great challenge" in his ten-minute speech.
In the same constituency, Annalena Baerbock, leader of the Greens, is running, and the former FDP general secretary Linda Teuteberg is also aiming for a candidacy here.
"I want to be your Member of Parliament," says Scholz in the most combative passage of his speech, "but I also want to be the next Chancellor."
The chances are not so bad - despite persistently poor poll numbers of 15 to 17 percent.
But, according to Scholz, "we were the first on the field and to the game. The others are still arguing about their line-up."
Greetings to the CDU, which has postponed its party conference this week.
Two applicants give up, two pull through
The march through for Scholz is indicated early.
At the introductory round two candidates withdraw and advertise for the Vice Chancellor.
Their reasoning: The party must now stick together and support its candidate for chancellor.
The question, however, is why the two started at all.
Two comrades go through with their application: the lawyer Benedic Schmeil-Moore and the innkeeper Justus von der Werth.
Schmeil-Moore said he was "incredibly disappointed" with the way Scholz's candidacy went, and complained about "backroom politics".
He calls for more internal party democracy and criticizes the SPD policy of the past few years, among other things on the issues of asylum and migration.
"Our efforts are not enough," says the Scholz challenger several times.
The applause for him is sparse.
The delegates react even cooler to the second rebel.
Von der Werth sharply criticizes social democratic politics - and also attacks Scholz directly.
He calls for a fairer tax policy and complains about current financial scandals.
"That is unbearable for any taxpayer," says von der Werth, referring to the Cum-Ex affair.
At times it is dead quiet in the hall.
The challenger defiantly tries on.
"It is not aliens that make the SPD so weak," he says.
Unity alone is not enough.
"We have to dare more democracy, it can't be that difficult."
In the end he gets a vote.
Scholz, on the other hand, can record the test at the grass roots level as a success.
The internal party criticism of the Vice Chancellor has noticeably decreased in the pandemic.
Even leftists praise the finance minister's crisis management.
In the surveys, however, this hardly helps the SPD so far.
Despite all demonstrative unity, the following applies: the comrades are still deep in the crisis.
Icon: The mirror
