SPD backs its chancellor
Published: Saturday, Dec 9th 2023, 18:10
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At the SPD party conference, Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted to his party's dramatic fall in the polls with a combative call for unity. "We must stick together and have a clear course," said the Chancellor in his speech to the 600 delegates at the party conference in Berlin on Saturday. Scholz clearly rejected the idea of dismantling the welfare state and the cuts to the citizens' income demanded by the FDP. However, he did not address the conflicting issue of deporting rejected asylum seekers.
Almost five minutes of standing applause
The delegates celebrated Scholz with almost five minutes of standing applause. The clear backing for the Chancellor was not necessarily to be expected. In recent months, frustration had spread within the party due to poor poll results. The SPD is now only at 14 to 17 percent. In the 2021 federal election, it was still at 25.7 percent. Dissatisfaction with the work of the chancellor is higher than ever before. According to a recent survey by the opinion research institute YouGov, only one in five people still like the way Scholz is leading the government.
51 minutes without manuscript
The Chancellor was unimpressed by this. Although he approached the lectern with a folded piece of paper, he held his 51-minute speech freely throughout. Some had expected the SPD's cohesion to come to an end at the party conference, he said right at the beginning. But that would not happen. "This social democratic party will continue to work together in the coming years."
Scholz looked back four years. Even then, the SPD was in a very difficult situation. Two years before the 2021 election, no one had believed that the Social Democrats would be successful in the Bundestag election. The Chancellor emphasized that the unity had held since then. "Nobody expected us to hold out for so long, thank you for that."
Scholz expresses confidence in budget negotiations
Scholz did not go into detail about the difficult negotiations with Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) on closing the 17 billion euro hole in the 2024 budget. However, he did have a few messages ready.
The Chancellor ruled out any serious intervention in social benefits. "There will be no dismantling of the welfare state in Germany in a situation like this," he promised, clearly rejecting FDP demands for cuts to citizens' benefits.
He nevertheless expressed confidence that an agreement will be reached in the traffic light. "We are not facing an impossible task. We just need everyone to come to an agreement."
Party conference indirectly in favor of suspending the debt brake in 2024
In a resolution, the party conference indirectly advocated the suspension of the debt brake in 2024 as well, although this leaves room for interpretation. "Constitutional leeway for the budget" must be used in the interests of the population, according to the resolution. Politically, the war in Ukraine has created the conditions for an emergency situation that would allow extended borrowing.
In her speech, party leader Saskia Esken made a clear plea for the suspension of the debt brake, which the FDP views skeptically. Lindner only commented briefly on the SPD party conference on the Internet portal X. "Despite everything that we still have to solve and can solve, I can only agree with Olaf Scholz on one thing in particular: Supporting Ukraine is also an investment in our security," he wrote. "We stand by this shared responsibility in difficult times." In his speech, Scholz promised Ukraine continued support.
Circumnavigating the conflict issue of deportations
When it came to the contentious issue of migration, Scholz kept it simple. He bypassed the thorny issue of returning rejected asylum seekers and concentrated on promoting the immigration of skilled workers: "As a country of immigration, Germany still needs the prospect of accepting those who are necessary for the growth and prosperity of this society."
In recent weeks, the government's migration policy has caused some resentment on the left wing of the SPD. It was sparked in particular by a statement made by the Chancellor in an interview with "Der Spiegel": "We must finally deport those who have no right to stay in Germany on a large scale."
Juso leader calls for offensive from Scholz
The leadership of the Jusos had criticized this as "straight out of the vocabulary of the right-wing mob". Philipp Türmer, who has since been elected chairman of the youth association, wrote: "I could puke at this quote."
Türmer did not go into this again in the debate on the Chancellor's speech. However, he called on Scholz to be more assertive in the traffic light coalition. "Dear Olaf, if you want to get out of the defensive, you have to play offense," he demanded. "You are the head of the government, not Robert and Christian's couple therapist," he said, referring to Habeck and Lindner.
Overall, hardly any criticism of the government's course
Overall, however, there was hardly any criticism of the government's course in the debate. The Social Democrats thus continued the line taken at the start of the party conference on Friday. In the election of the party leadership, the delegates refrained from punishing the leadership trio of party chairmen Lars Klingbeil and Esken and General Secretary Kevin Kühnert. On the contrary: Esken and Kühnert significantly improved their results from the last election two years ago.
©Keystone/SDA
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