Two candidate teams go to the runoff election for the SPD presidency. In competition for this reason, one of the defeated candidates' duo has given up its reluctance and made a clear recommendation: Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius and the Saxon Petra Köpping took the side of Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz.
"Our SPD needs an east-west dual point in the coming years, it is about different life experiences and perspectives, which is why we will support Klara Geywitz and Olaf Scholz in the run-off election," said Pistorius of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung". Köpping, who is the integration minister of Saxony, hopes for a corresponding policy: "I expect Klara Geywitz, that she recognizes the East German perspective and thus makes a contribution to an all-German policy."
DPA
The candidates Geywitz and Scholz
Scholz and Geywitz are in a run-off election against former North Rhine-Westphalian Finance Minister Norbert Walter-Borjans and Member of Parliament Saskia Esken. After the first ballot, SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil called on the party elite not to influence the members' decisions by election recommendations.
At first, everyone had stuck to it. Meanwhile, other high-ranking party members spoke for Scholz and Geywitz. This triggered internal sharp criticism.
The ballot between the two best placed duos takes place from 19 to 29 November. Formally, the new chairmen will be elected at a federal party conference from 6 to 8 December.
Read here the answers to the most important questions about the SPD power struggle: the candidates, the election, the consequences