Three days after the SPD's historic defeat in the federal elections, the new parliamentary group has elected its leader, Lars Klingbeil. The 47-year-old from Lower Saxony received 85.6 percent of the vote, significantly less than his predecessor Rolf Mützenich in the three elections for parliamentary group leader since 2019.
Klingbeil is thus the new strongman in the SPD and will lead his party in talks to form a government with the Union. It is unclear whether he will remain as parliamentary group leader after successful negotiations for a black-red coalition or whether he will then move into the new federal government - possibly as vice-chancellor.
At a press conference after the election, Klingbeil spoke of an "honest result" that reflected the diversity of the SPD parliamentary group. This gave him a "strong mandate" for negotiations with the CDU/CSU.
"Friedrich Merz and I have agreed that once the positions in the parliamentary groups are clear, we will talk soon and also agree on a timeframe for talks. For me, it is now a matter of developing a common understanding of the scale of the task ahead of us. I want to tell you from my side that these are major tasks that we need to clarify in the talks," said Lars Klingbeil.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had announced that he would no longer have any involvement in forming a new government. In such situations, other SPD party leaders have also resigned. But Klingbeil did the opposite: he took the offensive, claimed the leadership of the parliamentary group and secured the support of the party's presidium on election night.
"I know what a responsibility we have as Social Democrats to make this country strong and to ensure that we have a government that is capable of acting. This is also the will of the SPD when we enter into negotiations now. But now it is also up to Friedrich Merz to make it happen. The Social Democrats' offer for reasonable, proper, serious negotiations is there. Now I am curious to see what the other side has to offer," he added.
Klingbeil turned 47 on election day and has had a brilliant career in the party. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009, became the party's secretary general in 2017 and, after winning the federal election in 2021, party leader together with co-chair Saskia Esken. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
