German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in danger of being replaced as those within his Social Democratic Party (SPD) reportedly eye replacing him with his government’s current defence minister, Boris Pistorius.
According to polling, Scholz already appeared unlikely to retain the role following the snap election scheduled for February 23 next year, with the SPD polling a long way behind the Christian Democrats and the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Even if the party does manage to outperform the polls and emerge victorious, insiders now reportedly said they do not want to see Scholz get a second term in office.
Two senior party members from Scholz’s hometown of Hamburg have publicly come out against the Chancellor, arguing that while he had done a good job overall, he had failed to “take people along with him and communicate leadership strength”.
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“We believe that the negative image that people in the country have of him can no longer be repaired,” SPD state parliamentarians Markus Schreiber and Tim Stoberock said.
They went on to urge SPD politicians to rally behind Pistorious instead and insisted that the public had a far more favourable view of him.
“It is good that we have Boris Pistorius, who can convey new confidence and stands for action and clear language! With him, who has long been the most popular German politician, as our candidate for chancellor, our chances of becoming the strongest party or at least of doing much better are much greater,” they said.
“But this can only work if Olaf Scholz realises that by giving up he is helping the Social Democrats and that by running again he is harming us all. He must propose Boris Pistorius as our candidate for chancellor and thereby do our country a service.
“And Boris Pistorius is right that Germany must become ready for war and that without security none of this is possible. By becoming the candidate for chancellor, he must have our full backing here too,” the representatives said.
Germany needs to prepare itself for major problems after Donald Trump won the US presidency, a leading German economic research agency has warned. https://t.co/SmcDKopDuJ
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) November 7, 2024
While shouted down by other SPD politicians over the comments, the parliamentarians’ claim that Pistorius was the only hope SPD had of re-entering the Bundestag as the most popular party appeared to be supported by the polls.
Currently, the SPD is believed to have the support of just 15.5 per cent of German voters. The Christian Democrats enjoy more than twice that level of support, while the AfD’s polling stands five percentage points higher than its government rivals.
“Scholz is burned-out nationally and especially internationally. He will hardly win over swing voters and will not mobilize them. With him, the SPD has no chance,” politics expert Klaus-Peter Schöppner told German news outlet Bild.
By contrast, Pistorious currently polls as the most popular politician in Germany, with some experts suspecting his rise to party leadership could help the SDP reverse its fortunes.
“Pistorius has the better poll ratings and ranks first in the politician rankings. Scholz falls far behind with 19th place,” INSA researcher Hermann Binkert argued.
Schöppner described Pistorius as representing “a seed of hope in an otherwise lost race”.
Despite such sentiments, both Scholz and Pistorious ahave denied a change of leadership is possible.
“To be honest, we have a Chancellor and he is the designated candidate for chancellor,” the defence minister said on November 11.
“I don’t see anyone in the party who wants to change that.”
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— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) November 8, 2024
