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    Home » Politics » German SPD in turmoil: Scholz on the brink, Pistorius option gains momentum

    German SPD in turmoil: Scholz on the brink, Pistorius option gains momentum

    With four months to go before Germany's early elections, the Social Democrats are split over who will be the candidate for chancellor. The party leadership is rallying around Olaf Scholz, while the base is calling for him to be replaced by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius

    Francesco Bortoletto</a> <a class="social twitter" href="https://twitter.com/bortoletto_f" target="_blank">bortoletto_f</a> by Francesco Bortoletto bortoletto_f
    21 November 2024
    in Politics
    Pistorius Scholz

    (FILES) In this file photo taken on September 4, 2024 German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (L) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend the presentation of Germany's first IRIS-T SLM medium range air defence system at the military base camp in Todendorf, community of Panker, northern Germany. As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats grapple with plummeting support ahead of a snap election in February, dissenters in the party are looking to popular defence minister Boris Pistorius to rescue them from a poll rout. Pistorius, 64, has managed the impressive feat of becoming the most liked politician in the country while serving in Scholz's rowdy three-way coalition that broke apart last week. While Scholz's ratings have nosedived, Pistorius' approval has soared despite steering the defence ministry, a tricky portfolio that had turned into a career graveyard for some of his predecessors. (Photo by Daniel Bockwoldt / AFP)

    Brussels – Ever since German Chancellor Olaf Scholz initiated the government crisis by firing his finance minister, liberal leader Christian Lindner, there has been a heated debate in his Social Democratic Party (SPD) over who should lead the centre-left into early elections in the calendar for February 23, 2025.

    The party is split between the loyalists of the current chancellor, i.e., the SPD cadres, and an internal faction that is growing larger and larger from the grassroots and is clamouring to replace the face of the candidate by putting its Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in Scholz’s place. The reason is simple, and it is the vertical collapse in support for the head of government: according to a recent poll commissioned by the Bild, Pistorius’ approval rating stands at 52.8 per cent, while Scholz’s has dropped to 31.4.

    The party leadership meeting held last Tuesday was inconclusive; no final decision was reached on the leading name for the campaign. Instead,  the rift that runs along the entire SPD, from the grassroots to the top, emerged with evidence. Those who support Scholz leverage the jump in the dark in changing candidates three months before the election and emphasize the advantages of campaigning from the pedestal of the chancellorship. On the other hand, calls are multiplying (starting in the territories) to unite the party around a figure capable of curbing SPD’s dramatic bleeding of support, evidenced by the resounding defeats in the eastern Länder last fall.

    Currently, the Social Democrats are polled at around 16 per cent, behind Friedrich Merz‘s CDU/CSU (stable at 32 per cent) and the ultra-right AfD, which is polled at 19 per cent. According to former SPD leader Sigma Gabriel, the party needs a “fresh start” and “courageous political leadership,” two elements that he believes can come from Pistorius, while Scholz’s “business as usual” would drop the progressives below the psychological threshold of 15 per cent.

    Commenting from Rio de Janeiro, where he attended the G20, the Bundeskanzler declared, “We want to win together, the SPD and me.” On the other hand, Pistorius, who, although has publicly reiterated his loyalty to the leader (“we have a chancellor candidate, he is the current chancellor”) and has portrayed himself as “a soldier of the party,” has never explicitly ruled out being available to replace him: “In politics, you can never rule out anything,” he remarked recently, adding that the only certain thing is that “I will not become pope.”

    Part of the popularity of Pistorius, who heads a traditionally “difficult” ministry in Germany, is due to the clear stance he has always maintained over the war in Ukraine, supporting the Kyiv resistance. On the contrary, Scholz’s image grew weaker and weaker as his semaphore coalition (SPD, Greens and FDP liberals) litigated and trudged, struggling to agree on major legislative measures, eventually falling apart in early November.

    Whatever the final choice will be, the SPD must make it quickly. The party’s federal congress is scheduled for Jan. 11. But by then, it will be too late to replace Scholz with anyone else. If the political era of the outgoing chancellor appears to have come to an end, however, it is likely that Pistorius will remain a leading figure of the German centre-left in the coming years, and he may well continue to hold the Defense Ministry in the new government, which could be a great coalition CDU-SPD.

    English version by the Translation Service of Withub
    Tags: boris pistoriuselection germany 2025olaf scholzspd

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