SPD politicians are pushing for Scholz to be quickly nominated as candidate for chancellor

In the debate about the SPD candidacy for chancellor, several members of the Bundestag are calling for a quick decision by the party leadership in favor of Olaf Scholz. “Olaf Scholz is our Chancellor and has very successfully led Germany through unprecedented crises”said Bernd Westphal, economic policy spokesman for the Bundestag faction, to the magazine “Stern” according to the preliminary report (Monday edition). He advises his party to be united and to have a clear focus on the election campaign with Scholz as the top candidate. Westphal called on the party leadership to make a resolution “this year” to provide clarity.

Other MPs also support this position. Andreas Rimkus from Düsseldorf explained that the SPD already had a chancellor and therefore also a candidate for chancellor. This must now be made officially clear. Holger Mann, chairman of the Saxony regional group, said: “I’m going into the election campaign with Olaf Scholz. We must not allow ourselves to be fooled. There are less than 100 days until the election.”

The Bochum party leftist Axel Schäfer also called on the SPD leadership to quickly decide on Scholz’s candidacy for chancellor. He also criticized the statements of former party chairman Franz Müntefering, who had described opposing candidacies as a matter of course. Schäfer explained that there was no historical evidence of a vote for the candidacy for chancellor and called on Müntefering to “stay off the sidelines.” That wouldn’t help the SPD in the current situation.

The party leadership is behind the Chancellor and has repeatedly emphasized its support for him. Even after the decision for a new election on February 23rd, she initially refrained from nominating him – and thus made the candidate debate possible.

According to some local politicians, the first SPD member of the Bundestag called for Pistorius to be a candidate for chancellor at the weekend. “It is my clear opinion that we should go into the election campaign with Boris Pistorius”said Joe Weingarten to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “He has the energy, the closeness to people and the ability to say what needs to be done, even in clear German. And our country needs that now.” Weingarten belongs to the conservative Seeheimer Circle in the Bundestag parliamentary group. Pistorius himself said on Sunday that the SPD already had a candidate for chancellor, and that was the current chancellor.

Ex-party leader Franz Müntefering had called for a decision at a party conference at the weekend, if necessary in a vote: “Of course, opposing candidacies are fundamentally possible within your own party and are not a sign of helplessness. They are democracy in action,” he told the Tagesspiegel.