Scholz should "implement more of what party wants"

On Friday, the SPD meets for the Federal Party Congress - it is about the election of the designated party leaders and the future guidelines of social democratic politics. The evening before, Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans show what course they intend to take at the party congress. Both of them confidently demand that Olaf Scholz, who has been defeated by the presidency in the run-off election, make more social democratic politics in the future: "The point is that Olaf Scholz will implement more of what the party wants in the future," said Saskia Esken of the Süddeutsche Zeitung Zeitung "in a joint interview with Norbert Walter-Borjans.

Both reaffirmed their claim to put an end to the balanced budget policy that Scholz advocates in the Grand Coalition. "You can not bring a law against the black zero, but must put on an investment package that is so fully financed that it is independent of the cash position." So the black zero waste, "said Esken.

Walter-Borjans sees it this way: "It is not about the dogma of taking out loans, but rather not subordinating everything to the dogma of the black zero." The CDU proudly speaks of the fetish of the black zero, besides, I put the picture of a broken school , a broken street, a mobile phone without a network, we have to invest, and not just in cash - Olaf Scholz also sees it that way. " Saskia Esken added: "And of course that goes without saying. The members of the government are meeting behind the will of the party."

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SPD leadership duo Walter-Borjans and EskenThe reality shock

"It's about much more"

Asked if they do not make too many concessions to the party's establishment in the lead convention, Esken answers: "Surely our party speeches and also the elections will not be reduced to what this motion is about We must not only improve the policies of the Grand Coalition, if possible, or end the Grand Coalition, we must above all change the policy of the SPD, renew the party, and we are at the forefront of change. "

"The SPD has lost a lot of credibility, and I believe I know why and how we can recover it," Walter-Borjans replied when asked why they wanted to do the same to lead the SPD. There had been a "weariness of ordered satisfaction" in the party. After every compromise in the government, it was said again: "That's 100 percent Social Democracy." This, according to Walter-Borjans, has diluted the profile of the SPD.

Walter-Borjans explained that Scholz and his application partner Klara Geywitz were unsuccessful in the SPD membership survey: "Many members of the SPD want a leadership that plays an independent role alongside the parliamentary group and the government, which is one of the reasons why Members did not want the Vice Chancellor to head the party. "