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In reality, it all looked like the political end: the party leader’s election lost to two largely unknown people; the only question was whether Olaf Scholz would reject her immediately. One year later everything is different.
By Barbara Kostolnik, ARD capital studio
He certainly imagined that tonight would be different. But Olaf Scholz was in the cameras’ spotlight on November 30, 2019 on the Willy-Brandt-Haus stage and had to congratulate Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken for their leadership in the match.
The applause for him was probably one he would gladly have dispensed with: somehow compassionate and comforting. Applause for the losers. Because contrary to expectations, the favored Scholz had not won the membership decision together with Klara Geywitz, but the critical duo of GroKo Esken-Walter-Borjans pushed by Kevin Kühnert’s Jusos.
Persuasion as “truly social democrat”
At regional conferences, Scholz, who usually seemed so cold, drummed almost passionately to himself. He went out of his way to ensure that the majority of GroKo’s critical base did not appear solely as Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor. “I am of the opinion that I am a true social democrat,” he replied to an angry comrade who held him jointly responsible for the difficult situation of the SPD and its rare elections.
But that night at the Willy Brandt House almost no one gave a damn about Scholz and his political career, let alone a candidate for chancellor. It was even rumored that Scholz would throw everything, even in the closet. His end seemed sealed. After all, that wouldn’t work: did you fail as SPD chair to run for SPD chancellor? Funny. Almost as laughable as thinking aloud about an SPD chancellor candidate at this stage.
Kevin Kühnert did it anyway, in early December at the SPD federal party conference. “My goal is to bring the SPD to a level where they don’t laugh at us, even if we talk about something like a candidate for chancellor. And we haven’t gotten back to that point yet.”
Kühnert had just been elected vice president of the SPD at the time and was still quite against Scholz. Meanwhile, that has changed dramatically. Because the self-assured Scholz did not lose heart but immersed himself in his work, his polls were consistently good, in contrast to those of his party. Then came the corona pandemic, and Scholz eliminated the “Bazooka” in the spring.
His handling of the crown crisis as Finance Minister made Scholz one of Germany’s most popular politicians. There was hardly any alternative for the party leadership to declare him a candidate for chancellor in mid-September. “Olaf has the chancellor boom,” Esken said on Twitter. Exactly the Saskia Esken that Scholz had meanwhile agreed to be a staunch Social Democrat. For which he later apologized.
Scholz’s position as chancellor candidate is indisputable in the SPD, even if he will probably never be revered or adored by his party. It is probably still the way Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder justified Scholz’s choice as secretary general in 2002. “Because there was no one better, he took the best.”
Franz Müntefering, general secretary before Scholz, was very interested in the pragmatist, who showed in Hamburg that he can clearly win the elections as long as they are not held at the SPD party conferences. The fact that his party loves him so little may secretly depress him, but he shows nothing outwardly. “The SPD needs a straight back when it goes into the field. Only those who are brave can convince others of themselves.”
The convict Scholz has even been able to convince Kühnert and many Jusos of himself. And Scholz has long overshadowed the winning duo Esken / Walter-Borjans. Now all he has to do is convince voters that he is a true Social Democrat. And whoever wants Scholz as chancellor has to vote for the SPD.
