Germany: coming to power, the SPD refocuses with Lars Klingbeil, its new strongman
Lars Klingbeil received 86.3% of the votes from SPD activists and will rule the party with Saskia Esken.
© Michael Kappeler / AP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The German Social Democratic Party, in power with the arrival of Olaf Scholz at the Chancellery, met this Saturday, December 11 in congress to appoint its new leadership.
Lars Klingbeil, a close friend of Olaf Scholz, becomes its main leader.
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A plebiscite.
Lars Klingbeil was elected with over 86% of the vote.
This close friend of Olaf Scholz is considered to be the architect of the spectacular rise of the Social Democrats, on whom no one would have bet a penny two years ago.
He replaces Norbert Walter-Borjans, who wished to retire.
Lars Klingbeil shares the two-headed SPD leadership with left wing representative Saskia Esken.
“
A victory in the legislative elections is not enough for me.
We have to keep the momentum going,
”he told party delegates, most of whom were following the debates from a distance.
Representative like Scholz of the right wing of the SPD, this giant of one meter 96, jovial and pragmatic, maintains good relations with all the currents of the formation.
A reconciler
He is the one who managed to silence the legendary internal quarrels in the party and to unite it - all tendencies combined - behind the candidacy of Olaf Scholz, a time marginalized within the formation.
Lars Klingbeil will still have to deal with the new secretary general of the SPD: the enfant terrible of the party, Kevin Kühnert, 32, a former internal opponent of Olaf Scholz.
If he now prefers to cultivate a more conciliatory image, Kühnert remains particularly popular with the youth movement of the SPD, which he led for many years.
In a speech at the end of the congress, the newly elected German chancellor reiterated his promises of "
a new start
" for Germany.
"
We want to mark the decade,
" he said to the enthusiastic applause of the delegates.
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To read also: Portrait - Germany: Olaf Scholz officially succeeds Angela Merkel
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