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PoliticsGermany

Germany's Social Democrats kick off election campaign

November 30, 2024

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party has launched its election campaign and promised to reverse its flagging fortunes. Scholz accused one of his former coalition allies of sabotage.

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Olaf Scholz at the conference to kick off the election campaign
Scholz was defiant and confident in his message, despite lagging behind his main conservative rivalImage: Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture-alliance

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday told his party a February general election would mark a crucial decision on the country's future.

Despite poor showings in the polls for his center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Scholz and party leader Lars Klingbeil promised that the party would turn things around.

What the party leadership said

"There is a hell of a lot at stake," said Scholz, the SPD's candidate for chancellor in the likely election.

"We are facing a fundamental decision for our country, one way or the other," he told the audience at the event at the party's Berlin headquarters. "Now it's about everything. If we take a wrong turn in Germany now, in this situation, it will have serious consequences."

Also speaking at the opening of a campaign conference at the SPD's Berlin headquarters on Saturday, party leader Lars Klingbeil was upbeat about the party's prospects.

"The Social Democrats are standing together, but above all, the Social Democrats are highly motivated for this election campaign," he said.

"85 days, it's going to be a tough ride. It will challenge us," Klingbeil added, referring to what promises to be a tense race to the early parliamentary elections expected to be held on February 23.

"If there's one thing the SPD can do, it's fight: we're a party for catching up, and we're going to show that over the next 85 days," Klingbeil said.

What the polls say so far

According to one poll, Scholz was clearly gaining ground in terms of voter approval over his challenger Friedrich Merz, the chancellor candidate for the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU).

In the survey published on Saturday by the opinion research institute Insa on behalf of the Bild newspaper, 22% of respondents said they would vote for Scholz directly as chancellor if this option existed in Germany.

The figure shows a 7 percentage point uptick on the previous week. However, 30% still said they would vote for Merz. Meanwhile, 16% said they would choose Robert Habeck, of the Greens — a slight dip compared with last week.

Scholz's three-way coalition government collapsed after he fired ex-Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) in early November after months of strong disagreements over budget plans for 2025.

As a result, the FDP withdrew from the government, whittling down Scholz's coalition to a minority government with the Greens.

Scholz opened his speech with attacks on Lindner, saying the FDP leader and party "systematically sabotaged" the work of the government for months.

"They wanted to actively prevent this federal government from being successful," said Scholz. "Something like that must never happen again in Germany."

rc/wmr (dpa, AFP, Reuters)