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SPD election campaign: Five lessons from the SPIEGEL candidate duel

2019-11-06T16:17:00.385Z


The first duel between the SPD candidate duo Scholz / Geywitz and Walter Borjans / Esken was at times rustic. In terms of strategy and content, differences finally become visible. Five lessons.



Round one in the final for the SPD presidency is through. For 40 minutes, the two remaining teams of Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the former Brandenburg Member of Parliament Klara Geywitz debated on the one hand and the Member of the German Bundestag Saskia Esken and former NRW Minister of Finance Norbert Walter-Borjans on the role of the SPD and the future of the GroKo, over chancellor candidates and a merger with the Left Party.

Striking: Both sides have to get used to an inner-party election campaign. The process is also a fine line: The teams must be separated from each other, but without deep trenches to create, which can not be bridged afterwards.

These are the five lessons from the SPIEGEL candidate duel:

First, the sleeping compartment phase is over

Unlike the regional conferences, there was controversy between the teams. Instead of just downplaying their program, the candidate couples came together and tried to rob each other. Sometimes more, sometimes less subtle. The SPD must be more emotional, demanded Walter Borjans. Therefore, Olaf Scholz would not be the right signal "in spite of collegial appreciation". From the showcase is now in the crucial phase of a competition.

Second, it becomes a real directional decision

Not a week ago, Olaf Scholz told SPIEGEL about himself and his party friends: "Even if we look at many things differently, we all want more or less in the same direction." Of this could be in some places in the debate, no question:

  • Example Kevin Kühnert : Under Norbert Walter-Borjans, the Juso boss should play a significantly more important role in the future than before. Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, has hinted that under Kuhnert there would be no further ascent beneath him.
  • Example : Political style : When Olaf Scholz said that in order to reach out to young people, the SPD had to communicate better again, at the height of the times, when Saskia Esken put in: "I think we have to change our politics." Thud.
  • Chancellor candidature example : While Norbert Walter-Borjans discourages his party from setting up a chancellor candidate, Olaf Scholz makes no secret of the fact that he believes he is a candidature and that he will take on the role of chairman.

Third, the future of GroKo is completely open

So far, everything seemed so simple: Scholz and Geywitz want to continue governing, Walter Borjans and Esken want to end the GroKo rather. The fact that it is much more confusing was shown in the debate.

Scholz sent a poisoned greeting in the direction of the CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer: He precluded her to vote in the Bundestag for Chancellor should the Union want to exchange Angela Merkel.

Klara Geywitz stressed that the SPD should always be prepared to lead an election campaign. Both would like to continue governing, but after this appearance one gets the impression: not at any price.

Walter Borjans and Esken also showed new nuances, albeit in the other direction. They were surprisingly cautious about a possible end to the coalition. They clarified their skepticism that black and red could clarify the great questions of the future, but also warned against headless action. Even Esken, who seemed to have the greatest distance from the grand coalition so far, offered to make a "responsible" decision at the party congress under her leadership.

Fourth, the comrades are over Gerhard Schröder

The two duos are more concerned with what comes, than with what was. Olaf Scholz may have referred too often to the outstanding in his view projects in his time as mayor in Hamburg. Otherwise, however, one did not spend much time with the past - at least for social democratic conditions.

While most of the teams at the regional conferences were still working on Gerhard Schröder and his controversial agenda legacy, the era of the former chancellor in the Duel premiere played at most indirectly a role.

Only Saskia Esken criticized the "neoliberal" aberrations, which the SPD was temporarily expired. Otherwise, the two candidate couples debated what they want to do differently in the future in tax, social and housing policy. This change of perspective would also do the party good overall.

Because: What has happened can not be changed anyway.

Fifth: A real restart will still hard

This was not only evident, but also in the way the candidates dealt with language. In order to break open the often voided, hackneyed party coup, the participants were given five terms that they were not allowed to use in their final statements: future, justice, cohesion, respect, society.

At Saskia Esken it took exactly six words to say "future".

Although Olaf Scholz managed to circumvent the taboo concepts, he replaced them only by other pods, such as "justice" by "fairness".

If the future SPD chairpersons want to convince not only their party but also voters, they will have to throw away many established phrases and rituals.

vote

SPD

Who convinced you?

  • Team Scholz / Geywitz
  • Team Walter-Borjans / Esken
  • I do not know.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-11-06

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