Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil Seek Two More Years as SPD Chairmen and Lay Out Ambitious Agenda for Party

After all, this connection seems to defy all crises in the world and in the traffic light coalition: Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil want to continue as SPD chairmen for two years, as they announced on Monday in Berlin. “Our cooperation as dual leadership of the SPD is very close and trusting,” emphasized both Esken and Klingbeil. General Secretary Kevin Kühnert also wants to continue in his office, as the two party leaders announced.

Esken and Klingbeil have been in office as a duo since 2021. The 62-year-old Esken has been at the top of the party since 2019. Together with Norbert Walter-Borjans, she prevailed in a runoff election of SPD members against today’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his current Construction Minister Klara Geywitz. The 45-year-old Klingbeil, SPD general secretary until 2021, became part of the SPD dual leadership after Walter-Borjan’s resignation. At the party conference at the beginning of December, the entire party executive board with its 35 members will be re-elected.

The SPD is campaigning for 100 billion euros in investments

The presidium and board also discussed this: key proposals for the modernization of Germany, the realignment of foreign policy and federal policy. The Social Democrats are calling for a further increase in the minimum wage and investments of 100 billion euros annually in education, infrastructure, digitalization and the restructuring of industry.

“We talked about a German pact for education in order to finance education fairly,” said the party leader. Germany is a rich country. “His wealth lies not in the soil, but in the minds,” emphasized Esken. In order for change to succeed in this country, the education of young people must be successful. Children with a migrant background in particular are at great risk of being left behind. Therefore, more targeted investment must be made in the educational opportunities of disadvantaged children.

Esken wants more taxes on large inheritances

In the past few days, Esken had already advocated for greater taxation of the super-rich and large inheritances. She said on Deutschlandfunk that it was about taxing large incomes, inheritances and gifts higher and, in return, relieving the burden on middle and lower incomes. Every year in Germany, 400 billion euros are inherited, some of them “very unequally,” and this increases wealth inequality even further, says Esken. The additional revenue should enable the state to invest more in infrastructure and education.

The key proposal for the modernization of Germany stipulates, among other things, that income tax should be reduced for 95 percent of the population, but multimillionaires and billionaires should be asked to pay more. The SPD also wants to loosen the debt brake, which is not going down well with the FDP.

Change of course in foreign policy

The party is changing course in foreign policy – as a result of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine. The SPD’s 2021 election program still said: “Peace in Europe cannot be against Russia, but only with Russia.” Now this sentence is turned into the opposite: “As long as nothing fundamentally changes in Russia, Europe’s security will be organized against Russia “The “change through trade” approach that has been in place for many years towards autocratic states like Russia is clearly stated to be a mistake. Migration policy, which is controversial in the traffic light coalition and in society, only plays a minor role in the three applications. The request to terminate migration agreements with countries of origin is supported.

The SPD has reached a new low point after the election defeats in Hesse and Bavaria. In the most recent polls for the federal election, the party only has 15 to 16 percent, and the three traffic light parties together no longer have a parliamentary majority. This fuels fears of further bankruptcies in the European elections in June 2024 and in the three state elections in East Germany.