Bremen mayor Bovenschulte backs Klingbeil as SPD leadership debate heats up
Bremen Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte sees no need for change at the top of the SPD. He named Manuela Schwesig and Anke Rehlinger as possible co-leaders.
Archive image · Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Bremen Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte on Saturday backed Social Democratic Party leader and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil amid a debate over the party's future leadership. "Lars Klingbeil is doing a good job. I see no need for change there," he told the RND newspaper network. He said the party chairmanship and a ministerial post need not be separated.
Bovenschulte called state premiers Manuela Schwesig of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Anke Rehlinger of Saarland "undoubtedly very well suited" to succeed Bärbel Bas as co-leader. He favoured keeping the dual leadership: "That would be my recommendation. We are in difficult times. We shouldn't change everything."
Bas announced on Oct. 12 that she would step down as party leader and minister. The SPD plans to elect its entire leadership at a congress in January. Klingbeil has not said whether he will run again, and no formal candidacies have been declared. Former Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is also seen as a possible contender.