Scholz new SPD chancellor candidate: Söder is stunned - Kühnert warns his own party

Where is the SPD heading? A red-red-green coalition - also as a junior partner - is officially conceivable. Now the candidate for chancellor has been found.

• Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz is the SPD's candidate for Chancellor .
• The Jusos support Scholz's candidacy , but have demands on him. (Updates from August 11, 2:56 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.)
• Juso boss Kevin Kühnert is now appealing to the party left . (Update from August 11, 2:56 p.m.)

Update from August 11, 4:15 p.m.: After the still incumbent Juso boss Kevin Kühnert , his potential successor, the North Rhine-Westphalian Juso chairwoman Jessica Rosenthal , has now commented on the nomination of Olaf Scholz . For them, Scholz definitely has a chance of winning the Chancellery with a “progressive majority”. It alludes to a red-red-green alliance. In addition, the SPD chancellor candidate has proven himself to be a good corona crisis manager , continued Rosenthal.

The Juso boss from North Rhine-Westphalia also has a demand on Scholz . The youth of the SPD could only gather behind him "if he made content-related offers to us". He must move away from the "black zero" principle. In addition, the Jusos are calling for a move away from Hartz IV - and the SPD should generally rejuvenate itself . A man like Kevin Kühnert must be in the “front row of the party” in the next federal election, according to Rosenthal .

SPD nominates Olaf Scholz as candidate for chancellor: Kevin Kühnert calls for party to unity

Update from August 11th, 2:56 p.m .: The Juso boss and SPD leftist Kevin Kühnert has assured support for the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz and warned the party against destructive debates . Kühnert referred on Tuesday to a power option that would be offered to the SPD in the 2021 federal election and after the announced end of the GroKo . The goal is a majority left of center. "Perhaps it is then Olaf Scholz who would be more capable than anyone else of making such an alliance possible and actually making it capable of a majority," said Kühnert.

He called on the party left on to engage constructively and critically in the debate. "It makes a difference whether you are looking for a party leader or a candidate for chancellor ," said Kühnert, who also said that numerous doubts had been expressed about the candidate Scholz. 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," he said.

As a lawyer , 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. In support of Scholz, he said: "We do this knowing and realizing that we - and this is the difference to previous years - are walking in a common direction ."

Scholz new SPD chancellor candidate: Laschet criticizes like Söder

Update from August 11, 10:51 a.m .: While Finance Minister Olaf Scholz defends his early proclamation as candidate for Chancellor of the SPD * in the ARD (see update from August 11, 6:25 a.m.) , North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet * (CDU) has it as criticized prematurely. At the moment he thinks “the time for election campaigns is premature and also inappropriate, ” said Laschet on Tuesday before a meeting of the NRW cabinet in Düsseldorf.

But it is the decision of the SPD. "I would advise all of us to continue working well together in the grand coalition for as long as possible," added Laschet, who is also the CDU federal vice-president. Laschet applies in December for the CDU federal chairmanship * and is therefore a potential candidate for chancellor of the Union .

Scholz new candidate for chancellor: SPD leaders claim a say - "Some of our supporters are disappointed"

Meanwhile, SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans is now calling for the party leadership to have a say in content . "I have always said that a candidate for chancellor cannot simply push through his agenda," said Walter-Borjans of the editorial network Germany (RND) . The SPD needs a program "which is based on the principles of the decisions of the last party congress and which is concretized with the candidate and the party". Work on it has already started.

However, the party will not “ impose” a program on the candidate , said the party leader. Walter-Borjans admitted that Scholz's nomination had disappointed a number of party members. "Some of our followers are disappointed - it would be dishonest and unfair to them to deny it, and you can follow it on Twitter," he said in the interview. Nevertheless, he is sure that the decision is correct.

We know this decision is an unexpected turnaround for some. We ask for trust in our path. We have decided to go this way together.

In contrast to the left-wing SPD leadership duo of Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken, the vice-chancellor and candidate for chancellor belong to the conservative party wing . In the race for party leadership he was inferior to both of them last year. For the commentator ARD Tagesthemen, Andreas Cichowicz, there was no getting around Olaf Scholz.

Olaf Scholz new SPD chancellor candidate: Söder stunned - "Nobody in Germany understands"

Update from August 11, 6.25 a.m.: CSU General Secretary Markus Blume has sharply criticized the time of Olaf Scholz's nomination as SPD candidate for chancellor. In an interview with the Passauer Neue Presse, he expressed his fear that this would make the work of the grand coalition more difficult. “Now is not the time for the election campaign and the election of candidates. Our country is facing great challenges and huge tasks in the corona pandemic, "said the CSU General Secretary.

The "proclamation of the federal election campaign in this difficult phase" could become a "burden" for the government alliance, warned Blume. To conjure up a candidate for Chancellor out of the hat as a surprise coup at the present time is "downright adventurous". Apparently it took this surprise to take the Scholz opponents in their own party by surprise.

Chancellor Merkel (center) together with government spokesman Seibert, Finance Minister Scholz, the Hamburg mayor Tschentscher and Bavaria's Prime Minister Söder (lr) before a press conference in the Federal Chancellery (archive picture).

© Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa Pool / dpa

It became clear on Monday at the press conference CSU boss Markus Söder. He accused the SPD of placing a heavy burden on the coalition's corona crisis policy by naming its candidate for chancellor at an early stage. The fact that the SPD is already starting the election campaign is "devastating for further cooperation on the fight against corona," said Söder on Monday in Munich. "Nobody in Germany understands that we are talking about election campaigns now."

The proclamation of Olaf Scholz as SPD candidate for chancellor leads to "that we are now concerned with every decision in the federal cabinet that it is solely from an election point of view," criticized Söder. "I would have suggested we start campaigning very late next year."

Söder also criticized the fact that the SPD leadership had shown itself to be open to a left alliance after the election next year at the weekend. This is also a step in the election campaign, he criticized. "We have to accept corona challenges, but not election campaigns," warned Söder. "And the clear message for a left-wing alliance - I don't know whether that really makes the most sense."

Scholz sees it differently. “The election campaign doesn't start tomorrow morning. It's just normal government work, ”he said on Monday evening on ARD. The citizens could now see where they are with the SPD.

Scholz becomes SPD chancellor candidate: CDU leaders react calmly to the nomination

Update from August 10, 4:44 p.m .: The CDU leadership reacted calmly to Olaf Scholz's nomination as SPD candidate for chancellor . According to reports, CDU general secretary Paul Ziemiak wrote to party officials on Monday that Scholz's nomination as SPD candidate for chancellor “let's take a relaxed note”.

After the SPD had philosophized about red-red-green and a green chancellor on Sunday, they are now nominating Olaf Scholz , Ziemiak wrote on. Recently , the SPD did not even find this convincing as its own chairman. And Scholz is also a declared opponent of red-red-green. The SPD remains true to its “intensive and fluctuating self-discovery course”.

Ziemiak also warned that more than a year before the federal election, the CDU should concentrate on government work, especially on coping with the Corona crisis . "Sensible cooperation with the coalition partner is important. Now is not the time to campaign. "

SPD bang: Left wing of the party dissatisfied with the nomination of Olaf Scholz

The left wing of the SPD is dissatisfied with Olaf Scholz's nomination as candidate for chancellor. "I cannot understand the decision of the party executive in favor of Olaf Scholz as candidate for chancellor," said Hilde Mattheis , member of the Bundestag, of the "Augsburger Allgemeine" . She added: "The recipe of the past few years to fish in the milieu of conservative and liberal voters will not work this time either."

A unanimous Primary vote leaves one on the left at a loss. Why do we try "to expect a different result with the same method over and over again?" (Einstein)

Above all, the contradictions in terms of content between the rather left-wing leadership duo Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans and Scholz , who is in the middle, could become a problem, according to Mattheis . She does not see any great overlap between Scholz and the two party leaders who are in favor of a left alliance, says the leader of the forum “Democratic Left 21”. "It would have been convincing to show courage now with the staff," said the member of the Bundestag.

In his own words, Mattheis feels reminded of past election campaigns that did not end well for the SPD . "It's like Peer Steinbrück said: that the candidate has to fit the program and vice versa," said the member of the Bundestag . “As a result, Steinbrück, as a conservative candidate, achieved a poor election result in 2013.” She is curious to see how the program debate is now going.

Scholz as SPD chancellor candidate: Schwesig is happy about the nomination

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig, on the other hand, is happy about Olaf Scholz's nomination as her party's candidate for chancellor. You support him because, in her opinion, it is comprehensive. “He has proven several times that he can handle crises. He has proven several times that he can do business and he has also proven several times, especially
recently in the economic stimulus package, that social issues are also important to him, ” Schwesig told the German press agency on Monday .

Congratulations @OlafScholz and thank you @EskenSaskia @NowaboFM for your clever & confident proposal! I'm looking forward to the election campaign! https://t.co/NtzAjMMsf1

SPD bang: Scholz explains his chancellor program

Update from 2.45 p.m.: The press conference on the SPD candidate for chancellor is over. There were no surprises too big - as a side note, the "secret" that Scholz presented to the journalists seems to be quite remarkable : The nomination had apparently been planned for weeks, but nothing from the inner circles of the SPD leaked to the public. The party had not always presented itself in this way in recent years.

Scholz has also explained the first cornerstones of his candidacy : The catchphrase "respect" seems most concise, with which Scholz also wants to refer to the concerns of the "heroes" of the Corona crisis. The focus on future technologies and Europe should not be a unique selling point in the upcoming federal election campaign Party leader Saskia Esken also drew a kind of red line: The Hartz IV era, in which Scholz was indirectly involved as SPD general secretary, must be overcome.

Now it's out: At the suggestion of our chairmen @EskenSaskia and @NowaboFM, the presidium and board of the @spdde have just unanimously nominated me as a candidate for chancellor. I am looking forward to a great, fair and successful election campaign in a strong team. #KK_SPD pic.twitter.com/3OFQepqQxj

Chancellor question in the SPD clarified: Scholz tries his hand at a more emotional moment in "Spontan" -PK

Update from 2:39 p.m .: "For example, we want to ensure that our country is seriously governed," explains Scholz when asked about a possible coalition with the left . He quotes former party leader Sigmar Gabriel : "It depends on the other". The economy must flourish, foreign policy must be serious. He does not explicitly rule out an alliance - the SPD wants a strong mandate. Then it is important to see who wants to go along. When asked whether he had been informed in advance of Saskia Esken's announcement, he does not go into more detail.

At the end, Scholz tries a more personal moment : "For a politician, it's a very special democratic moment - and now we're going to make something out of it together."

Update 14:35: "We want to lead the next government - and it is clear that certain variants excludes" jokes Scholz on demand if he possibly after the federal election as vice-chancellor of a GroKo . Could be rediscover "Whoever has ruled for a long time, must also be given the opportunity to regenerate in the opposition, "he says, referring to the Union .

Update from 2:27 p.m.: You stand up “to lead a government, ” says Scholz with an emphatic self-confidence. "There should now be a social democratic government - and then we'll see how we can manage it." He sees an advantage in the early nomination: While other parties are still fighting over personnel issues, the SPD can "concentrate on what is important"

"We will have a lot of catching up to do, but nobody is beyond the reach," said Scholz, looking ahead to the election campaign.

Scholz names the key points of his SPD candidate for chancellor: "Respect, future, Europe"

Update from 2:24 p.m.: The successful industrial country Germany must be rebuilt, says Scholz - a technological breakthrough is necessary, including with renewable energies and a pioneering role in digital technologies . At the same time, "Europe is the future for our country". Germany must "help to bring about the future". At the EU summit a program of solidarity had been formulated, which was "a social democratic merit".

The fact that for the first time since 1945 no holder of the Chancellery has applied is a “great opportunity”, emphasizes Scholz. He names the catchphrases “respect”, “future plan 2020” and “Europe” as core topics on his agenda.

Update from 2:20 p.m.: The next decade will be about "how to manage the future of this country, the future of Europe," says Scholz . For that you need a plan. “It's about respect, ” emphasizes the finance minister, a presumed catchphrase of his candidacy. When the corona crisis is over, “everything must not be forgotten” - the “heroes of the corona crisis” need recognition in the form of payment and clear rights. "It is my firm conviction that those who earn more do not deserve more respect." It is a question of "the cultural debate": "We are not with those who consider themselves to be something better."

Scholz becomes SPD candidate for chancellor - and celebrates a "surprise": "I'll be happy to tell you the secret ..."

Update from 2:18 p.m .: "I'll be happy to tell you the secret that we have sometimes called each other in the past few weeks and wondered: 'Hasn't anyone noticed that?'", Scholz now explains the "surprising nomination". A premature break the GroKo is not up for debate, he emphasizes - one wants to continue to face the "responsibility".

Update from 2:16 pm: Scholz 'is "with the solidity that he exudes", "with his experience", explains Walter-Borjans as the right candidate. There will be neither a program of a candidate for chancellor nor a program that is "imposed" on a candidate. - Apparently a synthesis is sought between the left party leadership and the comparatively conservative Scholz.

Scholz-PK in the live ticker - Esken names red line for candidate for chancellor

Update from 2.10 p.m.: They want to "overcome Hartz IV", emphasizes Esken - and with this, presumably names a mandatory requirement of the left party leadership for Scholz's candidacy for chancellor. At the time of Gerhard Schröder's red-green government, Scholz was involved in Agenda politics as SPD general secretary.

Update from 2:06 p.m.: Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken play each other for the time being and praise Scholz and the previous record of their work at the top of the SPD - Scholz himself has not yet had a say. The designated candidate for chancellor follows the statements with an almost immobile mine.

“We would like to ask for their trust, especially those we surprise, on this common path,” says Esken. Even in the first statement by the party leader on Twitter, the extremely open-hearted handling of any reservations against Scholz caught the eye.

Scholz SPD candidate for chancellor: "Spontaneous press conference" begins in Berlin

Update from 2:02 p.m.: The SPD leaders and Olaf Scholz now declare themselves to be nominated for Olaf Scholz as candidate for chancellor - Norbert Walter-Borjans speaks remarkably of a "spontaneous" press conference.

The party executive "unanimously accepted" the nomination, explains the SPD leader. He highlights Scholz's role in combating the corona pandemic and its consequences. "So far, the Federal Republic of Germany has come through this crisis very well. This is also seen abroad." That has a lot to do with Scholz - and being able to master crises is "a quality criterion for a chancellor".

Scholz becomes SPD candidate for chancellor: FDP scoffs - "It will be a shame SPD", "chance at zero"

Update from 1:10 p.m.: In the morning, the SPD leadership nominated Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as a candidate for chancellor - from the other parties urgently already uncomprehending to mocking reactions. The nomination would “tend to harm the SPD in the long run”, was the opinion of the FDP Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki . He told the dpa : "Because the leadership of the SPD has to explain why Scholz should be elected by the people in the country if he doesn't even manage to be elected chairman by his own comrades." The probability of an SPD chancellor to get it is "at zero" anyway.

The left , which SPD leader Esken had brought into play on Sunday as a coalition partner, reacted rather reserved. “Whoever the SPD names as a candidate for chancellor is up to them. But also to Olaf Scholz it should be clear that the content matters when working together, ”said the parliamentary director Jan Korte . He demanded from Scholz, who was considered to be more business-friendly, "in particular a policy of redistribution and a departure from the degrading policy of Agenda 2010." He also made the Greens , as possible further partners, responsible: The "fooling around" must come to an end.

Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans have meanwhile turned to the SPD members. “Germany needs a Chancellor who is determined and experienced. Brave even in crises, able to overcome them powerfully. With respect for each and every individual. And with a clear picture of a good and just future for everyone, ”says a letter from which the dpa quotes. Scholz embodies all of that.

SPD bang: “Unexpected turn” - Esken announces Chancellor candidate Scholz - but the tone is surprising

First report: Berlin - Only on Sunday had SPD leader Saskia Esken declared in the ARD “summer interview” that her party was also ready as a junior partner of the Greens for a coalition - now she and her co Norbert Walter-Borjans apparently have a decision Things K-question hit: According to information from the picture , the leadership duo proposed Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a candidate to the SPD party executive .

A little later Esken gave the official confirmation on Twitter: "Now it's out: Olaf Scholz is our #chancellor candidate," she wrote in the short message service. “Olaf has the chancellor boom,” she continued - an allusion to a statement by Scholz about the Corona stimulus package.

Now it's out: @OlafScholz is our #chancellor candidate. Together with Olaf, @spdde and @spdbt we are a strong team. We look forward to a great and successful election campaign.
Olaf has the Chancellor # Boom 😉

SPD: Chancellor candidate fix - Esken and Walter-Borjans propose Scholz

In subsequent postings, however, Esken took an almost apologetic stance: “We know that this decision is an unexpected turn for some. We ask for trust in our path, ”wrote the SPD chairwoman . The “close alliance and the trusting cooperation between the party leadership, parliamentary group leadership and the social democratic ministers” that resulted “surprised many”.

Scholz had recently received good poll numbers - in connection with the Wirecard scandal, however, the finance minister was also criticized. In the SPD itself, it is controversial anyway - especially among the left wing , to which Esken and Walter-Borjans are also assigned.

Olaf Scholz becomes SPD candidate for chancellor - now the Union is also under pressure?

Most recently, members of the Bundestag parliamentary group and other SPD ministers had spoken out in favor of Scholz as candidates for chancellor. Group leader Rolf Mützenich stated after the board decision: "Olaf Scholz has proven with his great political experience in government and parliament as well as head of state government that he can lead our country even in difficult times."

Leading SPD politicians congratulated Scholz on the nomination. "For a candidacy with oomph and a social democratic chancellor in Germany: We stand behind you, Olaf Scholz!", Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Monday on Twitter. SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil spoke of a close team made up of the party, parliamentary group, government and candidate. "We are ready and I really feel like campaigning," he emphasized.

It also seems possible that the early definition of the SPD will bring new momentum to the Union's chancellor debate. The last favorite was Markus Söder (CSU) - his alleged main competitor Armin Laschet (CDU) *, on the other hand, struggled with difficulties. Most recently, the Ruhr CDU's election campaign kicked off a PR boomerang. ( fn ) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network .

List of rubric lists: © dpa / Oliver Dietze