SPD politician Michael Roth: Criticism of Chancellor Scholz and withdrawal from politics

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SPD politician Michael Roth (2022): “If you pursue top politics today, you almost have to give up completely.”

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa

The SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Roth is leaving politics next year. The reason is alienation from his party and the political world. »I'll do it until the federal election. After that I’m out,” the 53-year-old told “stern”. »I don't have the bite anymore. I feel an inner distance from the company. Now it’s over with politics.”

Roth, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee since 2021, spoke of a gradual process of alienation from the SPD. He said he was a passionate social democrat. »But in the last year I noticed that I was becoming more and more at odds with our meetings, that the committees and the atmosphere in them were bothering me. When the door to the parliamentary group room opened, I had the impression that I was climbing into a refrigerator." Roth went on to say: "Sometimes I felt like a foreign body." The truth is that he strongly advocated his views publicly and took part in the conversation But I neglected colleagues. “In this respect, I also share responsibility for the alienation.”

“Today, top politicians simply have to survive every day.”

Roth, who took a few months off in 2022 due to mental exhaustion, also spoke bluntly about the rigors of political work. “If you pursue top-level politics today, you almost have to give up completely,” said the Social Democrat. »This is brutal. Today, top politicians simply have to survive every day." Roth says: "I am sure: Willy Brandt would no longer be able to become Chancellor today."

In an interview, the SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Roth criticized the party leadership for what he saw as the wrong way of dealing with the Chancellor. “Both the party and the parliamentary group have actually subordinated themselves to him,” said Roth. »It all depends on the Chancellor. In times when you can't please everyone, that's simply too much to handle. Politics is a team game, not a one-man show.«

He also accused FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, with whom Roth had vehemently campaigned for arms deliveries to Ukraine for months, of harming the Chancellor. »I always based my criticism on the matter at hand. I think it's wrong that she often turned this into a personal criticism of the Chancellor. What I also resent her for is that not everyone who voted against the Union proposal on Taurus is scaredy-cats or bunglers. She gave that impression.”

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