Elections in Germany – Scholz is unanimously nominated as a candidate for chancellor

The nomination was preceded by controversial debates. Over the past two weeks the party had publicly discussed whether the much more popular Defense Minister Boris Pistorius should replace Scholz, who was ill after the failure of his traffic light government.

Pistorius renounces his candidacy
It was only last Thursday that Pistorius decided not to stand as a candidate, paving the way for Scholz’s appointment. However, in the SPD, the impasse over the K issue still has an impact. At the Federal Congress of the Young Socialists (Juso), the youth association of the SPD, there was sharp criticism of the party leadership this weekend. Juso boss Philipp Türmer accused party leaders Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil of leadership failure and spoke of a “shit show”.

Esken then admitted: “No, we didn’t really make a good impression when we nominated our candidate for chancellor.” Klingbeil defended the party leadership’s approach. “My claim to leadership is that you listen to the party, that you have debates, that you think in different scenarios,” he said on Deutschlandfunk.

At the same time, Klingbeil called on the party to now look ahead to the elections on February 23. “Now everyone has a collective responsibility to turn the switch and ensure that we start the election campaign.” Esken said on ZDF regarding Scholz: “We are now going to fight together with him.”

Official confirmation at the SPD party conference
After the nomination, Scholz’s candidacy for chancellor must be confirmed at the party congress on January 11. This is considered a formality. However, Scholz must be measured by his results from May 2021 – more than four months before the federal elections. At that point, Scholz was confirmed with 96.2 percent of the vote.

At that time, just like today, the SPD obtained between 14 and 16 percent. Only a smile from Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet in the flood area led to a turning point in the summer: the SPD became the strongest force with 25.7 percent.

SPD wants a duel between Scholz and Merz
The SPD hopes that the challenger will make mistakes this time too. The party wants to focus the election campaign on the duel between Scholz and chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz. The Social Democrats accuse him of outdated politics and mainly want to score points with Scholz’s government experience and certainty on issues.

However, when it comes to popularity ratings, the Chancellor continues to perform worse than Merz in the surveys. In the ZDF’s current political barometer, he is in seventh place and Pistorius is the undisputed number 1. However, the data was collected before the SPD’s decision on the K issue last Thursday.

For the first time, four candidates for chancellor
At the same time, the SPD hopes that Scholz will present himself differently in the election campaign than a government leader who wants to bring balance. Prime Minister Alexander Schweitzer (SPD) of Rhineland-Palatinate said in the ARD program “Report from Berlin” that the party now needs a combative and combative Scholz. “The time for moderation in a difficult traffic light coalition is now over. Now we need the strong Olaf Scholz, who also shows where he wants to take the country,” Schweitzer emphasizes.

After Merz and Greens vice-chancellor Robert Habeck, Scholz is the third candidate for chancellor nominated by his party for the February 23 elections. On December 7, the AfD board wants to nominate party leader Alice Weidel as a candidate for chancellor. For the first time, there are four candidates for chancellor in federal elections.