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SPD candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Photo: Janine Schmitz / photothek / imago images
No, the candidate didn't need a training camp, says Lars Klingbeil and grins.
»Olaf Scholz has recently attended many digital party congresses.
He knows that. ”But of course it was a strange situation, admits the SPD general secretary, with no audience, no applause.
Scholz took a lot of time to prepare his appearance.
When the Chancellor candidate of the Social Democrats gives the central speech of the day early on Sunday afternoon, he will only look into a few cameras - and an almost empty room. Only a few comrades are allowed to watch Scholz in the Berlin CityCube, at the first digital federal party conference of the oldest party in Germany. That means: The 600 delegates as well as all guests and journalists are connected digitally, not even all members of the party presidium are on site.
The special conditions in the pandemic are just another challenge for Scholz and election campaign chief Klingbeil.
The party’s crisis weighs more heavily.
For ages, the SPD has been in the polls at 14 to 16, maybe 17 percent.
The Greens in particular benefit from the current weakness of the Union, while the Social Democrats are lagging behind in third place, walled up in the polls' cellar.
The nervousness in the party is correspondingly great.
And the frustration.
"It hurts me physically," says Claudia Moll, SPD member of the Bundestag from the Aachen region, when asked about the polls.
She does not understand why her party does not benefit from the work in government: "Our ministers are the only ones who work!"
In fact, Scholz and the other social democratic members of the government are doing their best.
You drive the Union in climate protection, in the care reform, in the fight against pandemics.
But it remains the same in the election year: it is not paying off.
The party longs for a sign of life, for a brilliant idea, yes: a departure.
The party congress is a central moment in the campaign, says Klingbeil.
He expects the virtual meeting to be a “starting shot for the race to catch up”.
But how will that work? Scholz is not exactly known as someone who carries his own people away. At party conferences in the past, he usually got poor results, in 2019 he and Klara Geywitz lost the member's vote for the party chairmanship. His surprisingly early proclamation as candidate for chancellor last year did not bring any momentum either. And now this Scholz should turn the mood with a speech?
Klingbeil is convinced, despite the lousy poll results, that there is still something going on for Scholz in the direction of the Chancellery.
"The shadow boxing is over," he says.
He is convinced that many conservatives in Germany are not convinced by the Union's candidate, Armin Laschet (CDU), and that many people in Germany do not want a green chancellor.
"The Greens are something of a political pseudo giant at the moment," said Klingbeil.
The closer you get, the more vague the party becomes.
"The Greens are a pseudo-political giant at the moment."
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil
The top comrades also draw hope from the fact that the party is, at least in terms of content, more closed than in the past. In a ten-month long process, the grassroots were involved in the election manifesto, which will be adopted at the party congress, and everyone from the left wing to the conservative Seeheimer Kreis is largely satisfied with the programmatic orientation (read an analysis of the election manifesto here).
One possible campaign topic could be the rising rents, especially in large cities - after the Federal Constitutional Court tipped the Berlin rent cap.
Party Vice-President Kevin Kühnert said "Zeit Online" that his party wanted a nationwide rent freeze in tense residential areas.
This would apply for five years, with inflation adjustment.
The Greens, on the other hand, only wanted an opening clause for the federal states, said Kühnert: "That would not be good news for people in Union-governed federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia, because the Union does not want any further rent regulation for the devil."
However, it remains unclear how the SPD actually wants to get on the offensive.
It is absolutely necessary now, it is said in the party, and ideally also a moment of surprise.
The Union is the main opponent, but the Greens are the main competitor.
There is no point in constantly emphasizing the work of the SPD ministers in the fight against the pandemic.
Rather, Scholz must convey a picture of how the SPD imagines the time afterwards.
It is also important to emphasize the contradictions of the Greens, such as the discrepancy between climate or transport policy demands at the federal level and the realities of government in Baden-Württemberg or Hesse.
The hope of the Social Democrats: Annalena Baerbock is likely to be watched more closely in the coming weeks with the question of whether she could lead the country.
But Scholz must be careful not to appear arrogant towards her, it is said.
Instead, he should use his experience and government skills to make it clear that he would be the better chancellor.
And then there are the chases to catch up in the countries that Malu Dreyer, Dietmar Woidke and Peter Tschentscher managed in the elections of the past year and a half.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, Brandenburg and Hamburg, too, the comrades lagged a long time behind in the election campaign and then nevertheless maintained their claim to leadership.
However, from the position of the head of government.
So can this situation even be carried over to the federal election?
For the Social Democrats to at least believe in it again, a small miracle must happen at the party congress.