One month after their biggest gig, the band breaks up.

A group of leading Social Democrats rocked the election campaign and brought the actually burnt-out party back to the top of the voter charts.

Together with the party chairmen Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, Olaf Scholz initiated his candidacy for chancellor, together with Secretary General Lars Klingbeil and the parliamentary group chairman Rolf Mützenich have worked together in the grand coalition as well as on the electoral stages over the past few months.

But now this time is coming to an end.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Walter-Borjans was the first on Friday to announce that he wanted to do something different soon. Others strive for solo careers. The 69-year-old SPD chairman announced on Friday that he no longer wanted to compete at the regular federal party conference in December. To justify this, he said in an interview with the newspaper Rheinische Post: "For me, the chairmanship was not associated with any further career planning from the start, but the goal of getting the party on course." With this mission, he continued, he was "Got so far that I can say: Now younger people should take it."

It had already been recognized earlier that the former finance minister of North Rhine-Westphalia wanted to enjoy his individual freedom again sooner or later. For example, because the Cologne resident had not sought a mandate in the Bundestag. Walter-Borjans, formerly popular as a hunter of big tax evaders, was brought into the competition for party chairmanship around two years ago by the Jusos, above all by its chairman Kevin Kühnert, the staunch opponent of the grand coalition with the Union. Kühnert had brought Walter-Borjans and his co-candidate Esken into the race against Finance Minister Scholz. Kühnert had been a mentor and coach for both of them at times. Up to the facial expression training, as you could see recently in an NDR documentary about "Kevin Kühnert and the SPD".

But this trio, which Olaf Scholz had played on the wall in the member survey for the party chairmanship, later disintegrated. Scholz and those around him who were willing to govern, succeeded within a short time in winning the new chairman to join the grand coalition. At some point Kühnert was ousted. For weeks Kühnert did not find out about the decision of the new troika that Scholz would become a candidate for chancellor. Meanwhile he was deputy party chairman. The five others made the music for the time being. For months they loyally ensured that Scholz was in the foreground and not criticized from within their own ranks when things were still going badly.

Walter-Borjans made his own election campaign, visited smaller companies, many constituency candidates, roamed the country. When it was written in newspapers that the two party leaders were being “hidden” in order not to harm Scholz, the sociable Walter-Borjans published every day where he was publicly presenting himself today on his “hiding tour”. His experience, calm and serenity, but also his financial policy expertise did good in the party leadership, which came together by no means out of sympathy. This was especially true for Scholz and Esken. But for Walter-Borjans, the trip through the country and the SPD also seemed to be a cheerful farewell. Already at the jubilee celebrations after the election you could see him standing at a certain distance, with an ironic smile. The SPD owes him a lot,and Scholz will know that only with the helpful two at the top of the party could he achieve the unity of the SPD that brought success.