It was close. Very close even. At the end of October, SPD Treasurer Dietmar Nietan announced the outcome of the vote in favor of the new party leadership. Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz came in first - with 22.68 percent of the vote. Only 1.64 points behind: Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken.
The absolute majority missed both candidate pairs. Runoff option so.
For years the Social Democrats have been in deep crisis. In the state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg, they only entered single-digit results. And even in nationwide surveys, they are far from what they really want to be: People's Party. On top of that, the notoriously lousy GroKo mood becomes an ever-increasing burden.
Important decisions are needed: continue the coalition with the Union? Or provoke new elections?
Anyone who will lead the SPD in this tense situation in the future is still completely open, even after a months-long struggle for power. At the beginning of December, the Social Democrats will come together for their party congress. Then the new top is to be officially announced. But how will things continue? The backgrounds to the ballot.
The candidates
Olaf Scholz has one advantage and one big problem at the same time: the finance minister is a political heavyweight, the most prominent comrade in the race for the party presidency. As Vice Chancellor he embodies like no other the claim to lead a government in the future. Scholz, however, with his most pragmatic course, stands like no other for the onward way - in a time in which many comrades desire more radicalism and a left turn.
DPA
Candidates Geywitz, Scholz: Maximum pragmatic course
On the side of the former Hamburg mayor Klara Geywitz occurs. The 43-year-old woman from Potsdam has been a member of the SPD executive board since 2017, but so far she has barely made an appearance in Germany. At the election in September she flew out of the Brandenburg state parliament. Now she wants to step into the first row.
The party establishment has Scholz and Geywitz already on their side: Recently, for example, Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Family Minister Franziska Giffey and the former SPD leader Franz Müntefering spoke for the two from.
Marijan Murat / DPA
Walter Borjans candidate, Esken: left camp
Their counterparts, on the other hand, are the favorites of the left-wing camp. Norbert Walter-Borjans has made a name for himself as a hunter of tax evaders as North Rhine-Westphalian finance minister. The Baden-Württemberg member of parliament Saskia Esken is a digital expert and fights for a strong state. The Jusos and other followers endeavor to give the duo a certain cult character under the abbreviation "Eskabo" - and thus help Walter Borjans and Esken become more well-known.
The vote
The final vote begins on 19 November. Within ten days, nearly 425,000 Social Democrats are again called to vote online or by postal ballot. The result will be announced on November 30th. Finally, the SPD executive wants to propose the winning pair at the party congress, which will take place from 6 to 8 December in Berlin.
In the first round, the turnout was only about 53 percent. At that time the members could decide between six candidate pairs. Three of the four eliminated duos are added to the left wing. Together, they came to more than 40 percent - voices, which now Esken and Walter Borjans are hoping for.
The consequences
At the party congress in Berlin, the comrades also want to draw a balance sheet of the first two years in the grand coalition. At least it is conceivable that the SPD clearly decides to leave the government. It would be a historic step. New elections would be likely.
The GroKo-Off is something of the heart's desire of many comrades from the left camp, who long for more profiling and demarcation. The question of who leads the party in the future could now be decisive. With Scholz and Geywitz, it should probably go on. The conservative SPD wing constantly emphasizes individual successes in the government, which can not be easily withdrawn. In addition, the fear goes around, the SPD could fall even lower in new elections.
Walter Borjans and Esken, in turn, are considered skeptical, but so far they have avoided a clear commitment. The congress should decide, they say.
In the SPIEGEL debate, the first public debate between the two teams in the runoff election, Walter-Borjans is now campaigning for a strategic change: the SPD should renounce its own chancellor candidate in the future.
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