Klingbeil and Esken remain SPD dual leadership in Germany
Published: Friday, Dec 8th 2023, 15:20
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Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken remain the dual leadership of the German chancellor's party, the SPD. At the federal party conference in Berlin, the two were elected as chairpersons for a further two years.
Klingbeil received 85.6% of the vote, only slightly less than in 2021 with 86.3%. With 82.6%, Esken achieved a significantly better result than two years ago with 76.7%.
Esken, 62, has already been SPD chairwoman for four years. In 2019, she and Norbert Walter-Borjans prevailed in a run-off election by SPD members against the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his current Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz.
After the 2021 federal elections, in which the SPD became the strongest party again for the first time in almost 20 years, the now 45-year-old Lars Klingbeil replaced Walter-Borjans in the dual leadership. Up to this point, he was Secretary General and managed the election campaign from which Scholz ultimately emerged as Chancellor.
Election defeats, migration policy and budget crisis cause unrest
In their first two years in office, the two saw their main task as supporting 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" approach to migration policy and, most recently, the budget crisis have brought unrest to the party and prompted calls for the SPD to raise its profile.
Next year will see the European elections, three state elections in eastern Germany and several local elections. The big question is: will the rise of the right-wing populist AfD and the simultaneous fall of the SPD, which has been exacerbated by the current budget crisis, continue? In the latest federal election polls, the SPD is only polling between 14 and 17% - compared to 25.7% in the 2021 election. The three traffic light parties together have plummeted from 52% in 2021 to between 33 and 38% today in nationwide polls.
Klingbeil sees dual leadership as a "sign of stability"
When announcing his renewed candidacy, Klingbeil saw this step as a "sign of stability" in turbulent times. He had already achieved a lot together with Esken. "But we are not finished yet." Esken recalled that she became party leader in 2019 with the aim of winning the 2021 general election. "I want to make it very clear: it is also our goal now. We have elections ahead of us that we want to win."
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