The SPD leadership is facing a personnel reorganization: will Saskia Esken remain in office?
Or do the Social Democrats - like the Greens - have other plans?
Berlin - Norbert Walter-Borjans has announced that he will resign from office as party leader of the SPD.
His work after the Bundestag election, which was successful for the Social Democrats, was done.
Walter-Borjans has led the SPD since 2019 with Saskia Esken in a dual leadership.
"For me, the chairmanship was not associated with any further career planning from the outset, but the goal of getting the party on course," said the 69-year-old.
"With this mission I have come so far that I can say: Now younger people should take part." He will not apply again for the party chairmanship at the party conference in December.
And Esken?
SPD: If Esken becomes a minister - party leader plan as with the Greens?
Esken, with whom “NoWaBo” prevailed against the duo Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz in the struggle for party chairmanship in 2019, has recently largely held back in public. On Twitter, she paid tribute to her co-boss. “The SPD is back and it is strong. Together we will lead this path to a good success in the coalition negotiations. Dear Norbert, I am infinitely grateful to you for the time we spent together! Thank you for the courage and strength to have embarked on this adventure. ”However, Esken did not provide any information about her personal future. Because it is not yet clear whether she will be involved in the next government?
Esken is traded as a possible minister.
Then the office as party leader would probably no longer be manageable.
To classify: There is currently a similar scenario with the Greens.
The two co-party leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck will most likely head a ministry.
Both are considered top contenders for important offices - for example for foreign affairs, finance or a new climate ministry.
For this case, Habeck took the following steps: “You can say so much that being a party chairman as a minister is incompatible with our party culture.” And with the party culture of the SPD?
SPD: Mützenich puts pressure on Esken - "It would be good that the party knows what it is about"
Within the SPD one is at least concerned with the scenario of an Esken ministry. The designated next Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has already referred to them as “ministrabel”. Esken's chances don't seem too bad after all. Mützenich has therefore asked the Stuttgart-born woman to renounce the chair if she wants to become a minister. "I think concentrating on one position is already challenging enough," he said in the "Interview of the Week" on Deutschlandfunk (Sunday).
The SPD parliamentary group leader continues: “That's how Saskia Esken started two years ago, ultimately insisting on this independence.
And I believe that you are smart enough to know that what was successful two years ago will have to be reflected again in the future. ”The parliamentary group leader expects Esken to explain himself accordingly.
"It would be good that the party also knows what it is about."
(As)