Claims against Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the trafic light coalition grow more openly from the SPD and the East Germany, German media reported.
The SPD’s criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is gaining louder and louder after the failure in the European elections. According to its chairman Rolf Mützenich, the Bundestag fraction would like Scholz to better represent Social Democratic interests, Tagesschau reported.
He said, at Tuesday’s parliamentary group meeting, close to 40 requests for a speech showed that MPs praised the chancellor’s work and supported him on content. In the meantime, however, they also signalled clearly that they are concerned about the reputation of the traffic light coalition. They demand the Chancellor become more apparent with his convictions, including in government, Mützenich continued.
The SPD received only 13.9 per cent of the vote, by far the worst result in a national election. Scholz did not want to comment on the election results to journalists, but this also drew some criticism from Michael Müller, the former ruling mayor of Berlin.
Müller, in charge of foreign policy, accused Scholz of making contradictory statements about the election campaign: “One cannot run a peaceful election campaign and permit Ukraine to attack targets in Russia with German weapons.”
Criticism from East Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia
Thuringia and Saxony, where elections will be held in the autumn, are also unpleasant with Scholz’s East German policies. SPD Thuringia leader Georg Maier called on Scholz and the coalition to address the needs of East Germans: “Why the hell don’t we finally focus on the problems of East Germany?” he told Der Spiegel.
Saxony’s main SPD candidate Petra Köpping also criticised in Spiegel that Scholz has so far promised two election campaign dates in the state: “I wish he would come more often.”
The criticism also comes from the SPD of North Rhine-Westphalia: state leader Sarah Philipp accused the party leadership of pursuing an unclear course, “especially when it comes to issues of asylum and migration policy as well as internal security that are important from the electorate’s point of view.”
Tuesday’s parliamentary group meeting also criticised SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert. It was primarily about his management of the European election campaign, according to Bild. It also noted that Kühnert has become increasingly critical of the future of the traffic light coalition. The image is disastrous and the alliance is damaging the SPD’s reputation.
