Germany Scholz swears SPD in for tough election campaign
Around three months before the Bundestag elections, the Chancellor and SPD candidate for Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has sworn his party to a race to catch up in the election campaign. In his first major election campaign speech to around 500 party members in Berlin, he saw the election on February 23 as a decision on the direction between a "back from here" conservatism of the CDU/CSU and the SPD as a "force of the center" in Germany that stands for "common sense".
30.11.2024, 12:46
SDA
"Now it's about the big picture," said Scholz in his hour-long speech, for which he received long applause. If you take a wrong turn now, there will be serious consequences. He would give his all for the country and the Social Democrats over the next 85 days. "Let's remember our strength: don't complain, do it. Fight together," he said at the end of his speech. "If we fight, we will win. Friendship."
SPD wants to leave candidate dispute behind
Scholz was unanimously nominated as candidate for Chancellor by the party executive on Monday. This followed a two-week debate as to whether the much more popular Defense Minister Boris Pistorius should be substituted as a replacement candidate for Scholz, who is politically tarnished after the failure of his "traffic light" government. With the "election victory conference" in Berlin, to which candidates and their teams were invited, the party now wants to put the dispute behind it and look to the future.
Scholz has set himself the goal of making the SPD the strongest force in the Bundestag again - as it was three years ago. However, it is currently 16 to 22 percentage points behind the CDU/CSU in the polls. There are only 85 days left until the election on February 23 to catch up.
Attack on Lindner: government work "systematically sabotaged"
Scholz began his speech with attacks on FDP leader Christian Lindner, whom he had fired as finance minister at the beginning of November, thus sealing the end of the traffic light coalition. In serious times, Germany needs serious politics and "no gamblers and no gamblers". Lindner and his FDP had "systematically sabotaged" the work of the traffic light government for months. "They actively wanted to prevent this federal government from being successful," said Scholz. "Something like this must never happen again in Germany."
Four key points for economic growth
Scholz named four points that he wants to promote during the election campaign in order to get out of the economic crisis: Securing industrial jobs, especially in the hard-hit car industry; cheap energy for the economy; increased investment in infrastructure; combating the shortage of skilled workers. To enable investment, Scholz wants to reform the debt brake.
Scholz campaigned for a further increase in the minimum wage and said that stable pensions and affordable housing would only be possible with the SPD. He emphasized that the traffic light government had made great progress in the fight against irregular immigration.
"You don't play Russian roulette with Germany's security"
Scholz also wants to score points in the election campaign with his dual strategy in the Ukraine war. On the one hand, he assures Ukraine of continued arms supplies, but at the same time wants to prevent NATO from becoming involved in the war with Russia. He therefore rejects the provision of the Taurus cruise missiles that Kiev has been demanding for a long time. "You don't play Russian roulette with Germany's security," emphasized Scholz. "I remain steadfast and level-headed, you can rely on that."
25.7 percent in the last election
Scholz's candidacy for chancellor still has to be confirmed at the party conference on January 11. This is considered a formality. However, Scholz must be measured against his result from May 2021 - a good four months before the general election. Back then, he was confirmed with 96.2 percent of the vote.
At that time, the SPD was polling between 14 and 16%, as it is today. It was only when the CDU/CSU candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, made what was perceived as an inappropriate joke in the flood zone that things turned around in the summer: The SPD finally became the strongest force with 25.7 percent.
Klingbeil: "We are a party for catching up"
Party leader Lars Klingbeil called on the SPD not to be influenced by the polls. "Don't listen to the polls, don't listen to the articles that are being written now," he said. "If the SPD can do anything, it is to fight. We are a party for catching up."
The first glimmer of hope for Scholz and the SPD came today with an Insa survey commissioned by "Bild". According to the survey, 22% of people in Germany would now vote for Scholz directly as chancellor - an increase of 7 percentage points compared to the previous week before the candidate selection. Union chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz is still in the lead with 30 percent (minus 1), while Green Party chancellor candidate Robert Habeck slips to 16 percent (minus 2) and thus to third place. In the Sunday poll on the Bundestag question, however, the SPD is still 17 percentage points behind the Union (15 percent to 32 percent).
