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Social Democrats Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / picture alliance / dpa
The new one leaves the stage in the Willy-Brandt-Haus to the old one this Monday.
It is the current chairmen of the SPD who appear before the press after the board meeting.
Not the designated new party leader Lars Klingbeil.
Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans talk about himself and him for around 30 minutes.
The candidate, who was unanimously nominated by the committees for the party congress in December, initially only speaks up with a YouTube video.
As Secretary General he took up in 2017 with the promise to turn every stone in the SPD, says Klingbeil.
A lot has been achieved, fighting from third to one in the election campaign.
“But I want it to go on.
An election victory is not enough for me. "
It is only half a new start that the SPD is performing on this day.
While Esken stays, the 43-year-old Klingbeil will take over for the 69-year-old Walter-Borjans.
He could become the youngest SPD leader in post-war history.
Walter-Borjans announced his withdrawal at the end of October.
Since then there has been speculation in the SPD that there could be a complete change of power.
Manuela Schwesig, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, was also traded for the party leadership.
Esken, on the other hand, was said to be interested in a position in the cabinet.
A duo for the transition
But in the past week, the party leader made it clear: She wants to continue.
Even if she indicated on Monday that she was still interested in a ministry, it is clear: both are not possible.
Even if the statutes of the SPD do not exclude this - it was Esken and Walter-Borjans who started two years ago with the promise of separating party and government.
There is continuity with Esken's whereabouts.
A real new beginning, a departure at all, is not associated with this dual leadership.
Esken and Klingbeil will also be a leadership duo for the transition.
If they complete their full term in office, the question of who should lead the party could arise again in two years' time.
What is the relationship between the two of them anyway?
Esken described her contact with Klingbeil on Monday as "very successful".
You have been working with him for eight years, said the party left.
First in digital politics, then since 2019 as party leader and general secretary.
Klingbeil belongs to the conservative Seeheimer Kreis. However, one of his closest confidants is the former Juso boss Kevin Kühnert. Klingbeil's ability to integrate the various interests is praised across the party. He also got along comparatively well with Esken, who many Social Democrats continue to consider unpredictable. Leading comrades also consider Klingbeil's role as campaign manager in the successful federal election to be the main reason for his rise.
However, it is unclear how the Lower Saxony interprets its future role. His absence from the press conference on Monday suggests that Klingbeil continues to impose a certain restraint. In his current role he organizes the coalition negotiations with the FDP and the Greens and is one of the most powerful actors in any case. Klingbeil should know that the focus is currently on the creation of the new federal government under the future Chancellor Olaf Scholz. And less on the party.
Whoever leads the SPD in the future will soon find little interest again.
That could be an opportunity for Esken and Klingbeil.
Their practical test will follow in the coming year, when four state elections are pending: in Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Above all, the result in the former home state of North Rhine-Westphalia is of immense importance for the SPD.
The first big decision that Esken and Klingbeil will have to make together in the coming days is: Who are they going to make their General Secretary?
Kühnert is currently the favorite.
Usually well-informed comrades even consider him to be established due to his proximity to Esken and Klingbeil.
And his successor, Juso boss Jessica Rosenthal, made it clear in the »Welt«: The youth association wants a strong role for Kühnert.
But it shouldn't be that easy for Klingbeil to get the familiar to his side. Many in the party are suspicious of the two’s close ties. And so others are also acted as General Secretary, including the Rhineland-Palatinate Labor Minister Alexander Schweitzer, 48. He was parliamentary group leader in the state parliament for seven years, previously Secretary General in Rhineland-Palatinate, so he would bring more experience to the post than Kühnert. The SPD women have already made it clear that they expect a successor in Klingbeil's position.
Leading Social Democrats expect a "wise personnel decision" from Esken and Klingbeil.
The task now is to find someone who can walk the tightrope to support Scholz and his coalition, but at the same time to further develop the SPD programmatically, they say.
The party should not only be "part of the government's organizational chart."
Fulfilling these expectations should be the acid test for the new duo at the top of the SPD.
