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SPD: Kevin Kühnert stands up for Olaf Scholz as candidate for chancellor

2020-08-11T12:22:28.681Z


"We are also capable of learning": Juso boss Kevin Kühnert supports Olaf Scholz's candidacy for chancellor. He warned the SPD against destructive debates in the face of criticism from the left.


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Juso boss Kevin Kühnert

Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa

Kevin Kühnert has assured Olaf Scholz that the Jusos will support him in his candidacy for chancellor. "We do this in the knowledge and understanding that we - and this is the difference to previous years - are running in a common direction," said the head of the SPD's youth organization.

The Board of Directors and Presidium of the Social Democrats unanimously nominated Scholz as candidate for chancellor on Tuesday. The SPD is the first party represented in the Bundestag that can present a top candidate for the election in autumn 2021 (read an analysis here).

Kühnert called on the left to participate constructively and critically in the debate: "It makes a difference whether you are looking for a party leader or a candidate for chancellor." Numerous doubts about the candidate Scholz had been expressed. However, the party left also noticed that it could help shape politics. "I'm not going to break my crown saying: We are also capable of learning," said Kühnert. But the option of a left-of-center majority could only be tapped with the SPD.

"Perhaps it would be Olaf Scholz who would be more capable than anyone else of making such an alliance possible and actually making it capable of a majority," he said. As a Juso, he had already campaigned for difficult programs and candidates "out of conviction for the cause and the goal of the majority," said Kühnert, who is also deputy party chairman. 

SPD chief chairman Nobert Walter-Borjans emphasized the party's right to have a say in the election program. "I have always said that a candidate for chancellor cannot simply push through his agenda," he told the editorial network in Germany. "At the same time, the party must not impose a program on its candidate."

Icon: The mirror

as / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-08-11

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