Federal Party Conference of the German SPD begins
Published: Friday, Dec 8th 2023, 11:40
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In the midst of the German budget crisis, the Social Democrats' first federal party conference in two years began on Friday in Berlin.
To kick things off, the two SPD chairpersons Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil and General Secretary Kevin Kühnert will be standing for re-election in front of around 600 delegates.
However, it is eagerly awaited whether the SPD's poor poll results and frustration with the coalition government will be reflected in the election results. In 2021, Esken received 76.7% of delegate votes and Klingbeil 86.3%. Kühnert was elected with 77.8% of the vote.
The election took place a few days after Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the "traffic light" government of the SPD, Greens and FDP were sworn in. The SPD became the strongest party in the 2021 federal election with 25.7% and was able to appoint the Federal Chancellor for the first time since 2005. However, it is currently only polling between 14 and 17%.
Scholz's speech on Saturday is eagerly awaited. He will take to the lectern without a completed budget plan. He has not yet been able to agree with Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on how to plug the budget gap of 17 billion euros for 2024 that has arisen as a result of a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court.
The SPD leadership is in favour of suspending the debt brake in 2024, opposes the social cuts demanded by the FDP and cuts in investments and instead sympathizes with tax increases. It is quite possible that the largest governing party will send its chancellor some messages that will make further negotiations more difficult. According to the debt brake in the German constitution, the German state may only take on new debt amounting to a maximum of 0.35% of gross domestic product.
Conflict topic number two at the party conference is migration policy. The SPD leadership wants to appease critics of the government's course on the issue with a compromise motion. Among other things, it supports the controversial sea rescue of refugees in the Mediterranean and calls for the reunification of family members of refugees to be made easier.
©Keystone/SDA
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