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Bundestag member Sören Bartol (SPD) speaks at the party conference of the SPD Hesse.
He was elected as the new state chairman.
© Helmut Fricke/dpa
As successor to Nancy Faeser, the Hesse SPD elects Bundestag member Sören Bartol as its leader.
The 49-year-old sees politics as a “team sport”.
Frankfurt/Main - The 49-year-old member of the Bundestag Sören Bartol is the new state chairman of the Hesse SPD.
At the party conference on Saturday in Frankfurt he received 84.2 percent of the delegate votes.
Bartol is the successor to Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who no longer ran.
The 35-year-old state parliament member Josefine Koebe was elected as the new Secretary General with an approval rating of 87.3 percent.
Bartol said he wanted to pursue politics as a “team sport.”
At the party conference with around 330 delegates, he invoked the solidarity of the state parliamentary group, government members and the party with the Hessian Social Democrats.
You can only grow with a strong team, said the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction.
“It is a party conference in a new, changed situation,” explained Bartol.
The SPD is back in government in Hesse after 25 years.
“We have a miserable election result behind us,” he said, referring to the state elections, in which the SPD received 15.1 percent of the vote and was unable to win a direct mandate.
“A painful reminder that shows us that we need to get closer to people with their worries and problems in everyday life,” said Bartol.
“We actually wanted to lead this state government.
We didn’t achieve that.”
A new state parliament was elected in Hesse in October 2023.
Since January, the SPD has been in power as a junior partner in a black-red coalition.
Looking ahead to the European Parliament elections in June, Bartol stressed that this was a vote with a lot at stake.
“It's about the future of Europe, the future of our democracies.
And it’s about our freedom,” he emphasized.
Populists are booming in many places in Europe.
Faeser said the party should use its strength in local politics more for the state level.
The roots in the communities are what characterizes the Hesse SPD, she said.
“We must also be able to transfer this strength to the state level in the next few years so that we can successfully go through the next state elections in four and a half years,” emphasized the Federal Interior Minister.
Faeser recalled that she was general secretary of the Hesse SPD from 2014 to 2019.
“It was a very difficult time,” she said.
When she took office, the party was deeply divided.
“We managed to find each other again, to listen to each other again and to respect each other,” she explained.
Little by little, the Hessian SPD has developed into a strong, unified party again, said Faeser.
“We have to continue working on this cohesion.” When she said goodbye to the state chairmanship, her party gave her a puzzle as a gift.
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Nancy Faeser's successor: Sören Bartol elected as the new Hessian SPD chairman
Hesse's Economics Minister Kaweh Mansoori also reiterated the team spirit in the state party's new leadership team.
The SPD has set up a round table at its head, he said.
Referring to the latest election results, the Deputy Prime Minister of Hesse announced that he wanted to gain new trust from voters.
To achieve this, the SPD wants to make pragmatic policies that improve people's everyday lives.
dpa