Status: 08.12.2023, 19:16 PM
CommentsPrint Share
Remaining at the head of the party: Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken after their re-election. © Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The SPD has to hold its party congress in the middle of the budget crisis. On day one, there was strong backing for the management staff. Frustration against the chancellor and the traffic light could still be discharged.
Berlin - It's the invisible elephant in the room: While the budget crisis has been dominating the headlines in political Berlin for weeks, the delegates of the chancellor's party, the SPD, were conspicuously restrained at the party conference.
Hardly any attacks against the traffic light partner FDP, which had recently questioned social benefits. The Chancellor also got off lightly at first. In return, the delegates sent a strong signal of support for the party's leadership. Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil were confirmed as party leaders with good ratings, and General Secretary Kevin Kühnert even achieved the third-best result of all SPD general secretaries.
The 34-year-old received 92.55 percent of the vote. There had been fears in the SPD that he could be punished on behalf of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This is what happened to Scholz himself in 2003, when he won only 52.6 percent of the vote in the general secretary election. This was seen as a slap against the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his social reforms.
Klingbeil received 85.6 percent of the valid votes at the national party conference, only slightly less than in 2021 with 86.3 percent. With 82.6 percent, Esken achieved a significantly better result than two years ago with 76.7 percent. In view of the mood of crisis and the SPD's miserable poll ratings, this is a clear vote of confidence.
SPD almost in election campaign mode
In the first two years of their term in office, Esken and Klingbeil saw their task primarily in strengthening Olaf Scholz's backing as the first SPD head of government in 16 years in the difficult three-way alliance with the Greens and FDP. However, crushing election defeats in Hesse and Bavaria, dissatisfaction with the traffic light course in migration policy and, most recently, the budget crisis have brought unrest to the party and raised calls for a stronger profile of the SPD.
At the party conference, it becomes clear that the SPD leadership has long been looking ahead to the next federal election, which will take place in 2025 as things stand. In their speeches, Esken and Klingbeil - after all, party leaders of the largest governing party - attacked their political opponents as aggressively as if they were in the opposition themselves. Esken accused the CDU of political vandalism. "With this Merz CDU, we truly have the most populist opposition of all time," she said. Klingbeil accused CDU leader Friedrich Merz of raving about the economic policy of the 90s. "Yesterday's Frederick will never be the future of our country," he stressed.
Next year will see the European elections, three state elections in eastern Germany and several local elections. The big question here is: Will the AfD's soaring popularity and the simultaneous crash of the traffic lights, which has been exacerbated by the current budget crisis, continue? In the latest polls for the Bundestag election, the SPD only gets 14 to 17 percent - compared to 25.7 percent in the 2021 election. The three traffic light parties together slumped from 52 percent in 2021 to 33 to 38 percent today in nationwide polls.
0
Read also
0
With up to 800 km/h: Projectiles make soldiers sick in the Ukraine war
READ
Traffic light coalition must cash in on promises of money - these subsidies are on the brink
READ3
Soon, the traffic light coalition could be missing another 26 billion
READ
Associations call for a halt to the legalisation of cannabis
READ
"Abrams" M-1A1SA: Putin's opponent has marched on the Ukraine font
READ
Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My Area
Crisis levy for the super-rich
The SPD wants to score points against the CDU/CSU with tax increases for the super-rich and a relaxation of the debt brake. After a long debate, the delegates adopted a key motion that also promises tax relief for 95 percent of the population. The citizens with the highest wealth are to be asked to pay with a one-off crisis levy. In addition, inheritances and gifts are to be taxed more heavily, so that multimillionaires and billionaires participate more in the financing of the common good.
The party's youth had vehemently pushed for the abolition of the debt brake. "Nothing threatens the future of our generation more than this damned debt brake," said Juso leader Philipp Türmer. Later, the Jusos and the party executive agreed on the wording that rigid limits on borrowing, as currently enshrined in constitutions, would be rejected. "They prevent investment and impair the state's ability to act." Türmer saw this as a rejection of the debt brake in general. It is no longer just a question of exceptions for investments, but for the state's ability to act, i.e. for example, the success of the socio-ecological transformation and a strengthening of social cohesion.
Keeping quiet during budget crisis talks
The party leadership emphasizes that these priorities had already been set before the historic debacle surrounding the federal budget. But now the demands are likely to be all the more topical. Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) have been struggling for weeks to plug a 17 billion euro hole in the budget for 2024. The SPD would have liked to have had an agreement before the party congress.
Now Scholz will probably have to address the 600 delegates on Saturday without a finished budget in his pocket. The delegates, one gets the impression, feel compelled to keep quiet the day before. Just don't torpedo the negotiations of the traffic light leaders. The mood is actually quite charged - especially since the Spiegel cover with the Scholz quote: "We must finally deport on a large scale." The government's course on migration goes against the grain of the left wing of the party.
Was re-elected for another two years as SPD General Secretary: Kevin Kühnert. © Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Scholz, however, was initially a supporting actor. When he was greeted, he received polite applause, but the delegates remained seated. Two years ago, the party congress greeted the newly elected chancellor in a very different way. Dpa