SPD MP Töns calls on Klingbeil to give up the party leadership
Ahead of the SPD's leadership vote in January, pressure on Finance Minister Klingbeil is growing. NRW lawmaker Markus Töns wants him not to run again. Schwesig is seen as the favourite for the dual leadership.
Archive image · Photo: Michael Lucan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Following Bärbel Bas's resignation, the SPD is openly arguing about its future leadership. According to Table.Briefings, Markus Töns, a Bundestag member from North Rhine-Westphalia, is calling on party leader and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil not to stand again at the January party congress. Töns argues that the SPD must be able to focus on the party's interests again without clashing with cabinet discipline. Klingbeil won only about 65 percent of the vote at the last congress and has so far neither announced nor ruled out another bid.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's state premier Manuela Schwesig is considered the leading candidate for the female half of the dual leadership. The large North Rhine-Westphalia branch is also claiming a top post after Bas stepped down. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has already declined to run for the leadership.
The personnel debate comes at a time of weak polling. In the latest INSA and Forsa surveys, the Social Democrats stand at 13.5 and 14 percent respectively, well behind the AfD, the Union and the Greens. The SPD plans to elect its entire leadership around the turn of the year.