She wants to make Berlin safer!

Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey wants to make security in Berlin a focus of her work as the new SPD state chairwoman. “Anyone who lives in Berlin must be able to feel safe. And that means social security, but it also clearly means internal security”, said Giffey on Friday evening at a party conference of the Berlin Social Democrats.

“I want us to take care of it because I know it is a concern of many, many people in this city. And I want us to take care of it because we have to make people say I feel I’m in good hands here in this city. ” As another of her topics, Giffey named ten months before the House of Representatives election Construction, education, an administration close to the people and a functioning economy.

At the party conference, the Berlin SPD wants Giffey and parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh elect the new dual leadership. The party congress was interrupted on Friday evening for the ballot box election in the district offices. The election results will then be counted and announced on Saturday. The governing mayor Michael Müller, who at twelve and a half was the longest-serving Berlin SPD leader, did not run again. The head of government in a red-red-green coalition is running for the Bundestag next year.

The new chairmen should get the SPD out of the polls and lead to new strength. Giffey until her move to the Federal Cabinet in 2018 Mayor in Berlin’s multi-cultural district of Neukölln was, is considered a bearer of hope. It has been agreed that she will also be the top candidate for the 2021 parliamentary elections.

The outgoing SPD chairman Müller called on his party to be more self-confident and confident with a view to the super election year 2021. The SPD must show a “clear stance” and make its own positions visible, then it will be successful again in elections, he said in his farewell speech. The SPD stands for social justice and has achieved a lot here in recent years, such as free education, rent cap or equality. “That is our mission, that is our core competence,” said Müller.

There is a rocky road ahead of the new leadership duo to the election of the House of Representatives, but the state chairman who has just been discharged has set a clear goal. In parting, Müller said: “It is important to me that the Red City Hall stays red.”

Also read: Franziska Giffey: Will the SPD’s hopefuls fall? >>

Giffeys start in the Berlin state politics overshadowed by the affair about her doctoral thesis. The Free University of Berlin (FU) gave her a reprimand in autumn 2019 for deficiencies in her work, but did not withdraw her doctorate. After widespread criticism of this approach, the FU recently announced a new test, which should be completed by the end of February. Under pressure, Giffey recently announced that she was giving up her doctorate.

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