Lars Klingbeil gets loud applause when he enters the Spartan equipped event room of a Wuppertal school center. Around 70 comrades and interested parties have come to meet the SPD General Secretary. They want to discuss the mobility of the future and sustainable urban district development.
"I asked for the visit from Lars last fall, and when the pledge came in December, it was like a premature Christmas present for me," says Miriam Scherff. She is the chairman of the SPD local association Cronenberg / Hahnerberg and has planned the event. Actually, it's about the future of the district. However, Klingbeil's visit brings questions of federal politics to the fore.
The mood here, on this part of the North Rhine-Westphalian SPD base, seems surprisingly euphoric at the end of October. However, the crushing performance of the Social Democrats in the Thuringian election was only a few days ago. Hope makes the Wuppertal comrades above all the result of the vote on the new party chairmanship. Many have voted for the duo Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken. They are in the run-off against Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz.
People like Klingbeil and Kühnert? "Unfortunately, we do not have enough of that"
Walter-Borjans enjoys great popularity in the member association of the SPD with the highest membership. During his time as NRW finance minister, he had gained many backers, mainly through the purchase of tax CDs from Switzerland. Comrade Scherff says that in a victory for Walter Borjans and Esken in the runoff "we could come back to the left and social profile that I joined the SPD ten years ago".
Also SPD member Klaus Schubert longs for old times, for a clear profile. Above all, after a party that can sell its successes to the outside and is not with internal strife. He joined the party 46 years ago because of Willy Brandt.
Schubert had voted for Karl Lauterbach and Nina Scheer as a new leading duo - but the two landed in the member vote only in fourth place. Now Schubert has to weigh up. Scholz stands for the grand coalition and politics of the past years, but in public but certainly better maps than Walter Borjans. Schuberts eyes meet Klingbeil, who advertises a whereabouts in the GroKo. "We need more people like him and Kühnert, whose hearts can fly, but unfortunately we do not have enough of that," says Schubert.
Klingbeil appeals to the Wuppertal comrades: Problems can only be solved in a coalition. And in fact there are hardly any people in the room who want to leave the GroKo early - be it for lack of alternatives or fear of the free fall of the party into insignificance. Since it happens that the own favorite Walter Borjans avoids for weeks a clear positioning to the grand coalition.
Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance
Secretary-General Klingbeil: appeal to the base
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In the SPIEGEL discussion of the two candidate couples dared the 67-year-old for the question of a possible candidate for SPD chancellor a push. He pleaded in view of the current situation of the party for setting up a leading candidate, but he represents in his party a minority opinion.
In Wuppertal-Cronenberg one agrees: More profile and assertiveness like, immediate GroKo exit rather not. The federal political work of recent years was not bad. The SPD has achieved a lot, but unfortunately not enough voters. With a clear course and clear demarcation from the positions of the coalition partner, believe the Wuppertal comrades, the party can find back to its old strength. Then it would require no GroKo-exit. Just ask yourself who the base trusts to accomplish this task.
Who prevents the party leadership a "keep it up"?
Change of location. The "Hotel Stadt Genthin" in Saxony-Anhalt. Here, the 20-year-old student Maria Pfannkuchen meets with ten comrades for the round table of the SPD Genthin. Together with fellow students from the University of Potsdam, she has opted for a tactical election in the management duo freestyle, she says. The couple got their vote, which would most likely prevent a "continue like this" with Scholz and Geywitz on the party leadership: Walter Borjans and Esken.
Not only pancakes have been noticed that hardly anyone is interested in Esken or Geywitz at the base, the women in the remaining duos for the party leadership. It is Scholz and Walter Borjans who capture the votes of the members. Some older comrades at the Stammtisch are decidedly opposed. At least among them, Geywitz has an advantage. Although she is hardly known in Saxony-Anhalt - as a Brandenburg she could use the party leadership but for East German interests.
The Genthiner comrades agree with the party friends in Wuppertal on one point: They also warn against the consequences of an immediate withdrawal from the grand coalition. The desire for renewal is omnipresent. But please do not come too fast - and above all not at all costs.