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SPD man Stegner collects Lauterbach's coalition promise - and has bittersweet thanks to Söder

2021-09-24T06:38:24.702Z


The former SPD Vice Ralf Stegner is fighting for entry into the Bundestag. In the Merkur.de interview, he talks about the situation before the election as well as coalitions and posts after the election.


The former SPD Vice Ralf Stegner is fighting for entry into the Bundestag.

In the Merkur.de interview, he talks about the situation before the election as well as coalitions and posts after the election.

Munich - Ralf Stegner has now been a member of the SPD for almost 40 years, until 2019 he was deputy chairman, a candidacy for head of the Social Democrats failed.

But Stegner's career is not over at 61.

The long-time leader of the SPD parliamentary group in Schleswig-Holstein now wants to join the Bundestag.

For his party, there is more at stake in the last few days before the general election.

Your candidate Olaf Scholz reaches for the Chancellery.

The Union is coming closer to the SPD in surveys.

Is the big tremor going on now?

No.

First, the approach is relative.

We stayed stable in the polls.

And if you consider where we started - at 14 percent - that looks good and we are in a good position on the chancellor question.

But it was always clear that we had to fight to the end.

I am confident.

Are you surprised by the SPD's pole position?

We had hoped that suitability for chancellor would play a role.

And it has.

It was rather surprising that the competition supported us after their efforts.

We were much more closed.

Markus Söder tormented Armin Laschet every day.

That certainly explains part of the trends.

But have you made your own mistakes in the last few meters - for example, that your candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz was too vague about issues such as climate protection?

What Laschet has to offer on the subject of climate protection is a thing of the past.

We want to rebuild the industrial society ecologically, and together with the Greens we will succeed.

I hear a lot of them fluctuate between red and green.

We don't want to weaken the industry, we want to secure jobs.

What is important in the final spurt, which groups of voters still need to be convinced?

SPD stands for decent work, secure pensions and the minimum wage of 12 euros.

That affects millions of people.

Renting is also a top priority.

The competition wants to build and let it rule the market.

But the market has totally failed.

We stand for the co-price brake ...

That hardly works ...

The rent brake doesn't solve everything, but it has already helped.

It will be difficult to lower rents, but the SPD will ensure that they do not rise.

Stegner on Scholz's resemblance to Merkel

You have known Olaf Scholz for many years.

How is your relationship?

We have worked well together for many years, we do not always agree, but we support and appreciate each other.

What kind of guy is Scholz?

Many see similarities to Chancellor Merkel.

He has a lot of government experience, exudes calm and prudence.

There was the thesis that Merkel social democratized the Union - I think that's wrong.

And yet many people voted for Merkel because of it.

Many of them are now going to Scholz.

At least that's what people say in the streets.

Scholz looks incredibly slim compared to a few months ago.

Why did he lose so many pounds?

If you campaign like him, you won't gain weight.

This is certainly due to the stress and the marathon.

And he is also a very disciplined person.

SPD man Stegner collects Lauterbach's coalition statement

Karl Lauterbach says that anyone who knows Scholz would know that there would never be red-green-red with him.

Do you agree?

Our wish is that red-green will come.

Otherwise we will talk to all other parties except the AfD.

We have a disagreement with the left on foreign and European policy, we have a fundamentally different view on taxes and economics with the FDP.

But these questions only arise after the election.

We will not do the other a favor and commit ourselves unilaterally.

We have clear limits to the right of what the Union cannot say.

There Laschet does not even manage to regulate the cause of the problem.

There is panic at the CDU, you can tell.

Should they lag behind the AfD in the eastern German states - then all hell has broken loose.

From 2005 to 2008 you were Minister of the Interior of Schleswig-Holstein.

They should now be up for debate in the federal government for the same office.

Have you already had conversations?

Anyone who deals with it before the election will certainly not get anything afterwards.

I want to win my mandate.

Everything else will then be cleared up.

But people speculate, that doesn't hurt.

But that is what sets us apart from the Union.

There Laschet introduces his shadow team.

I think it's questionable whether it will help to distribute the bear's fur beforehand.

A return of ex-party leader Andrea Nahles is not absurd, it is rumored.

I heard that too, but that is one of the many speculations.

She was very reserved in public.

But there is no doubt that it can do something.

But Lauterbach should be appointed as Minister of Health?

He has an incredible number of fans but also tough opponents.

For him, too, the following applies: win elections and then the bearskin is distributed.

Not so long ago you were SPD vice-president.

Are you aiming to return to the top of the party?

The current question is not what will become of me.

I am in the comfortable position of having achieved a lot.

We will see.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-09-24

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