As of: February 15, 2024, 1:26 p.m
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Raed Saleh, state chairman of the SPD Berlin, speaks at the state party conference of the Berlin SPD.
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa/archive image
There are more and more candidates for the new dual leadership of the Berlin SPD.
Now incumbent Saleh speaks out.
Berlin - There are now three candidate duos for the dual leadership of the Berlin SPD.
The previous SPD party leader Raed Saleh announced on Thursday that he would apply for the top post again - together with district politician Luise Lehmann from Marzahn-Hellersdorf.
They wanted to reposition the SPD as a strong voice for social justice, innovation and sustainability, according to a statement released by the two on Thursday.
“The SPD Berlin should be revitalized through the candidacy and positioned again as a leading political force in the city.”
The previous week, Neukölln's district mayor Martin Hikel and former state secretary Nicola Böcker-Giannini had already expressed their interest in leading the regional association.
Last Monday, the previous deputy state chairman, Kian Niroomand, and the co-chair of the Berlin SPD women, Jana Bertels, followed.
The election of the new SPD party executive is planned at a party conference at the end of May.
It is conceivable that the SPD will conduct a member survey and there will be a kind of election campaign between the applicant duos with various events at the party base.
The federal SPD did the same in 2019.
Nothing has been decided on this in the Berlin SPD yet.
The Berlin SPD is currently led by Saleh and Economics Senator Franziska Giffey.
Giffey, mayor until April 2023, has already declared that she will not run again.
Background: In May 2023, the delegates at an SPD state party conference decided that in the future the dual leadership should “not entirely” consist of people who also play a key role in the government.
Saleh (46) is considered the strong man of the Berlin SPD and a well-connected puppet master.
For him, his candidacy is about a lot: Hardly anyone else has been active in a central position in the SPD for as long as he has.
Of all the candidates known so far, his person is probably the least likely to represent a new beginning in the party, which many members and not least the opposing candidates want.
Saleh has been a member of the state executive board since 2008, he has been parliamentary group leader since 2011 and has been party chairman together with Giffey since November 2020.
Berlin's SPD has been going downhill for many years.
In the repeat election to the House of Representatives in 2023, it achieved a historically poor result of 18.4 percent and ended up far behind the CDU.
After around six and a half years of alliance with the Greens and the Left, the party then entered into a coalition with the CDU - as a junior partner.
A member survey before the coalition agreement was signed showed only a narrow majority in favor.
dpa