Klingbeil tells SPD to stop navel-gazing: 'We want responsibility'
Ahead of a January congress, the SPD leader urged his party in Bild am Sonntag to commit to governing. He has not said whether he will run again for party chair.
Archive image · Photo: Raimond Spekking / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Social Democratic leader Lars Klingbeil urged his party to clearly commit to governing ahead of its congress in January. "I want the SPD always to project: we want responsibility," the vice chancellor and finance minister told Bild am Sonntag.
The Social Democrats should stop focusing on themselves and tackle the country's problems, Klingbeil said, pointing to crises and wars shaping daily life, a return of growth and the need to push investment. "Decisions for the country, that is what it's about," he said, adding that this required the best possible lineup.
Klingbeil has not yet said whether he will seek another term as party chair. Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned the SPD on Saturday at the Young Union's congress in Bonn that there were limits for him too.