After the Berlin election: The SPD must now draw the right conclusions!

Germany

That was clear! With a lead of almost ten percentage points, CDU won the election in the capital. A historic result. And the party of the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey? She lost more than a bang. The SPD was punished by the Berliners. And now ranks just around a hundred votes ahead of the Greens. Now the social democrats have to draw conclusions.

So far, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that at all. The incumbent head of government, who was voted out with a bang, refuses to vacate the post. She wants to continue to ruleshe explains after the election.

Of course: A red-green-red or green-red-red alliance can continue to rule. This is mathematically possible. That is democratically legitimate. Whoever can gather the majority in the House of Representatives behind them governs. All fine.

However, the SPD draws the wrong conclusion on this point if it lets Giffey lead the government again. The Neuköllner was clearly voted out. Even the SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken mentions the CDU in an interview Deutschlandfunk after the election a protest party. And that is exactly what the capital’s Christian Democrats are: they turned people’s displeasure into voters. Especially the old ones.

Franziska Giffey and her opponent and previous coalition partner Bettina Jarasch (Greens).Photo: IMAGO/Stefan Zeitz

Giffey’s clear consequence should now be to vacate her post. And no, not to make the rumors true and get back into the federal cabinet. This rumor popped up when it became known that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) could flee to Hesse. She wants to be prime minister there. Giffey, so the murmur, could then take over the post in the federal government. Please do not.

Giffey was already under Angela Merkel Member of the Federal Cabinet – at that time as Minister for Family Affairs. Until her written doctoral thesis fell on her feet. She resigned – only to take up a little later as a top candidate in Berlin. It’s enough for the capital, at least that’s the impression it made at the time.

It was actually enough the first time. At that time, the election took place on the day of the federal election – so federal politics and Scholz’s election campaign were correspondingly influential. That should have been a booster. In addition, the election was declared invalid for a reason – so the result may also have been due to the adverse conditions.

Now it’s clear: No, it’s not even enough for Berlin. Even if this city has the reputation – and also does a lot to ensure it – of happily doing things differently. Like to be a little dirtier. A little more anarchistic.

The SPD needs fresh top personnel

Not anarchist enough for a failed federal politician to easily be the head of government here to everyone’s satisfaction. Especially if she and her party don’t even get the hang of taking the botched 2021 election on their own. And that despite the fact that the SPD was also the head of the Red City Hall at the time. The fact that Giffey and her party tried again is not surprising. For the SPD, something like this has almost become a tradition. After all, even Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) did not take office without a scandal.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has already had to remodel his cabinet twice.Image: AFP/ODD ANDERSEN

The cum-ex scandal still sticks to him. His role in the whole tax evasion disaster is still unclear. The Social Democrat is apparently still suffering from amnesia. In the federal election, Scholz benefited above all from the incompetence of his competitors. When the Christian Democrats probed for the candidate Armin Laschet, the Social Democrats criticized the Union was clearly deselected.

Now they want to do it themselves in Berlin.

Apparently Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his SPD cannot completely convince people. And that, although the current time of crisis could be their time to shine. Life is expensive, people are tired and rents are too high. And yet the social democrats do not manage to position themselves.

Current election polls show: If there were federal elections on Sunday, the Union would clearly win there as well. So it is high time that the SPD drew its conclusions. What they would need to do: put the social question of the 21st century at the heart of their politics place. Listen to what people in the cities and in the country need. And find new top political personnel.

In the best case, politicians who have not yet burned and climbed back. Surely that’s what a big party like the SPD will do?! So why are the citizens always presented with the same party members in office and with dignity?

Veterans must learn to walk with dignity

Another example where this clou has backfired: Christine Lambrecht (SPD) as Defense Minister. Earlier this year, Lambrecht was effectively ousted from office – having dismantled herself over the past year. But the biggest gag is that originally Lambrecht, who did a good job as Minister of Justice under Merkel, didn’t want to go back to political Berlin. If she had stuck to that decision better.

At the beginning of the year, Christine Lambrecht resigned from her position as Secretary of Defense.Image: dpa / Fabian Sommer

Former Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) did it more cleverly. He stands because of the disastrous deduction armed forces from Afghanistan under criticism. In December 2022 he then made room and left the Bundestag. The 22-year-old Emily Vontz now sits in his place in the Bundestag.

A total of 53 Jusos, i.e. members of the SPD youth organization, sit in the Bundestag. Of course, in their first term they do not have to be appointed directly to the cabinet. And yet this number shows that there are also many young, fresh minds alongside the veterans. Politicians ready to take their chance. MEPs who don’t yet have the unpleasant smell of a scandal.

If the chancellor brings Giffey back to the federal level, it will probably break his neck. What happens when a party always draws the wrong conclusions from crappy elections, the Reds can learn from their coalition partner in federal politics. Since the general election, it has been failing FDP in all state elections. In Berlin, too, the Liberals were thrown out of the House of Representatives with a crash.

A fate that the Social Democrats certainly do not want to share. This year, citizens in Bremen, Hesse and Bavaria are still going to the polls. So the SPD would do well to learn these lessons from the election as quickly as possible. In Bremen in particular it will be exciting to see whether the social democratic mayor Andreas Bovenschulte can hold on.

If not, the SPD will lose another home country to the Christian Democrats.