Klingbeil rejects doubts about Scholz's candidacy: "We will do everything to make him our chancellor again"
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil has dismissed any doubts that his party will again run with incumbent Olaf Scholz as their chancellor candidate in next year's federal election. "He remains our chancellor, and we will do everything to ensure he becomes our chancellor again in the next federal election," Klingbeil said on Sunday in an interview with ARD. However, he admitted that the SPD is not satisfied with its current nationwide poll results.
"Those 15 percent at the federal level, yes, they're real and they hurt," Klingbeil said in an interview with the show "Report from Berlin". The SPD leader stressed that "it's a tough time". There are uncertainties, wars, and crises. "There's a lot of uncertainty that's spreading across the country," he said. This is also reflected in the dissatisfaction with the traffic light government - "you can't get around that".
"Everything must be done to ensure that the federal election, which we will have in 13 months, turns out differently," Klingbeil emphasized. The SPD will show that it can fight. Scholz will be "leading the charge", said the SPD leader. But the election next year "won't be a walk in the park".
In a July poll by the Forsa institute, only a third of SPD members still thought Scholz was the right candidate for chancellor. Just as many supported Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Scholz himself has made it clear that he will run again as chancellor candidate. "I will run as chancellor, to be re-elected as chancellor," he said in his press conference before the summer break. A journalist had asked him if he wouldn't follow the example of US President Joe Biden and refrain from running again.
The Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has expressed his intent to run again as the SPD's chancellor candidate in the upcoming federal election. Klingbeil, supporting Scholz, stated, "Scholz will be leading the charge."
