Lawmakers from Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) have spoken out for the first time in an internal meeting in favor of running in the February election with the more popular Defense Minister Boris Pistorius instead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spiegel reported on Saturday.
Leaders of Germany’s major parties on Tuesday agreed to hold a federal election on Feb. 23, 2025, following the collapse of Scholz’s troubled three-party coalition last week.
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) are currently leading in polls by a wide margin, with 32 percent support, and seem likely to lead the next coalition government with CDU leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor.
Scholz’s SPD, on the other hand, is polling third with 16 percent, just behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and down 10 percentage points since the 2021 election.
According to Spiegel, SPD members of the Bundestag in a recent meeting joined local and regional politicians in voicing doubts over Scholz’s chances to succeed and called for Pistorius to step in.
The comments were made on Tuesday at a meeting of the Seeheimer Kreis (Seeheim Circle), a conservative wing of the SPD which claims to be aiming at “a modern and pragmatic policy,” the German newspaper reported. Before the meeting of the entire parliamentary group, the Seeheimers met for their traditional lunch, where they discussed current political issues, it said.
Most of those present expressed great doubts that the SPD could achieve a respectable result with Scholz, according to Spiegel, while some expressly wished they would rather go into the election with Pistorius.
Lawmaker Joe Weingarten from Rhineland-Palatinate was particularly critical. Scholz is “out of favor” with the people in the state, he was quoted as saying at the meeting.
This applies deep into the SPD local groups and will not change, said Weingarten, whose comments were confirmed to Spiegel by participants. The change to Pistorius must come, otherwise the federal election in February will be a “disaster,” he was also quoted as saying.
Pistorius ranks as Germany’s most popular politician, quite unusual for a defense minister in a country that has a complicated relationship with its military.
Several regional SPD politicians have openly called for Pistorius to replace Scholz at the top of the party ticket.
Embarrassingly for the chancellor, they include two members of the state legislature in Hamburg, the northern city of which Scholz used to be mayor.
“Scholz has made good policies … over the past three years, but he has failed to win people over and communicate leadership,” two state lawmakers in Hamburg, where Scholz was mayor from 2011-2018, said in a post on Instagram.
“We believe that the negative image that people in the country have of him can no longer be repaired,” said Tim Stoberock and Markus Schreiber.
“It’s good that we have Boris Pistorius who can instill new confidence,” they also said.
