Bundestag election: SPD Rhineland-Palatinate criticizes election campaign manager Klingbeil

Rhineland-Palatinate SPD leader Roger Lewentz: "We're just missing the start of the election campaign"

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Andreas Arnold / dpa

For days, a power struggle for the candidacy for chancellor raged in the Union.

The SPD could have benefited from this, says the Rhineland-Palatinate state chairman Roger Lewentz.

He accuses his party of making mistakes in the beginning federal election campaign.

"We're just missing the start of the election campaign," said state chairman Roger Lewentz of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" ("SZ").

SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil had failed to use the Union's "chaos days" in the nomination of Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet for political purposes.

"I would have liked to see this in the media every day," said Lewentz.

When asked whether Klingbeil was too posh or too cautious, the SPD state chief replied: "It doesn't matter, because it amounts to the same thing." One and a half months after the Rhineland-Palatinate SPD had won the state elections, Lewentz said with a look at the still bad poll results of his party that the SPD in Germany has a perception problem.

"In a situation like this, it's like football," said Lewentz, who as the interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate is also responsible for sport.

“If you're 2-0 down, you can't play for hold on to the result.

Then you have to attack and seize every chance. "This applies all the more," if the most important opponent, the CDU, opens the field to one like that ".

asc / dpa