First SPD politicians want special party conference in autumn: Officials demand the replacement of Bas and Klingbeil

In light of the SPD’s dismal poll numbers, the Working Group on Migration and Diversity is calling for a special party conference this fall to reorganize the SPD leadership. This was reported by “Der Spiegel.” “There is massive public disillusionment with social democracy in our country,” the magazine quotes the two working group chairs, Mehria Ashuftah and Orkan Özdemir, as saying.

“This disillusionment leads to people no longer perceiving the SPD as a political option, which is reflected alarmingly clearly in the current polls,” Ashuftah and Özdemir continued. Due to this “existential threat at the federal level, a special federal party conference this fall is unavoidable.”

The two working group chairs come from state politics: Ashuftah is a member of the Hamburg Parliament for the SPD, and Özdemir is a member of the Berlin House of Representatives. At a special party conference, they want to reorganize the party leadership, headed by Lars Klingbeil and Bärbel Bas. The current leadership structure has clearly failed. The party also needs to realign its policies. A dual role for party chairman and government minister is no longer an option in the party’s current situation, politicians say.

Will more SPD members join them?

Criticism of combining party and ministerial posts has surfaced within the SPD before. Klingbeil holds the office of Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister in addition to party chairmanship, while Bas is also Minister of Labor. The accusation is that this leaves them with insufficient time to dedicate to party affairs.

An extraordinary party conference can be convened by either the party executive committee or the grassroots. This requires the support of at least two-fifths of the district executive committees. It remains unclear whether more SPD politicians will join this call.

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However, as “Der Spiegel” reports, discontent is also widespread in state associations in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. According to the report, many party members are now questioning whether Bas and Klingbeil will be able to retain their positions after the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Berlin. If the elections go poorly, the chairpersons would likely have to resign, it is said. (Tsp)