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SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert
Photo: Christian Marquardt / POOL / EPA
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the SPD ended up in second place with significant losses and 26.7 percent - behind a CDU with growth.
On the evening of the election, many saw the result of the state election as a vote on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
But SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert does not want to automatically attribute the reasons for the weak performance of the Social Democrats to federal politics.
"I would not accept the thesis that this state election result would now be a confirmation or refutation of the policy of the federal government," said Kühnert in the morning to the Bayerischer Rundfunk.
Although federal politics overlaid the state issues in the election campaign, he does not see a rejection of Scholz.
"I haven't seen people draw the conclusion from this: They can do it and they can't." After an election like this, there is always a longing for it to be quite clear what the mistake in Berlin is.
"But I also experienced a lot of encouragement for the Federal Chancellor's policy in Ukraine."
However, Kühnert conceded: "We fell short of our own expectations." Especially among young people, the SPD did not do as well as he would have liked.
At least the election goal was achieved, namely to vote out the previous black and yellow state government.
Hope for SPD government
Nevertheless, Kühnert does not want to give up hope for an SPD-led government in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The SPD general secretary said it was "completely self-evident" that CDU Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, having won the election, would lay claim to government and hold talks.
“But in a parliamentary democracy you lead a government when you get a majority behind you in parliament,” says Kühnert.
“He can only get this majority with parties that have been in opposition to him for the last five years and have passionately criticized him and his CDU for the lack of climate policy, housing policy or daycare policy.”
In the state elections on Sunday, Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst's CDU was clearly ahead with 35.7 percent of the votes.
The SPD ended up in second place with significant losses and 26.7 percent.
The Greens were able to increase massively, almost tripling their result in the 2017 election with 18.2 percent.
FDP (5.9 percent) and AfD (5.4 percent) only just managed to re-enter the state parliament.
Kühnert had already defended the SPD defeat as a partial victory on the evening of the election.
Black and yellow was voted out, that was an important goal.
The SPD could continue to assume government responsibility in Düsseldorf.
"Of course, the runner-up can also negotiate a government," said Kühnert in the evening on ARD.
mrc/dpa
