SPD leader Bärbel Bas expects discussion about the future of the party leadership if the Social Democrats perform poorly in the state election in Saxony-Anhalt. "The elections in September will point the way, including for us as party leaders," Bas told newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday editions), with her co-leader Lars Klingbeil also in mind. "I'm realistic about that, it's like football: when things aren't going well, people start discussing the coach."
In Bas's assessment, the scale of any personnel debate will depend on her party's result in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on 6 September. "If we were to be voted out of a state parliament for the first time in Saxony-Anhalt, that would be catastrophic," the SPD leader said. "Then things would get uncomfortable in the SPD." Bas added, however: "But at the moment I don't expect that."
Bas conceded that the mood within the party is poor. "Nobody in the SPD is satisfied with the state of the party, and that includes Lars Klingbeil and me," said the federal labour minister. "We have been stuck in the polls since the federal election."
The coalition, she said, is implementing necessary reforms, and the SPD leadership is trying to make clear why this course is the right one. "But there are debates and conflicts within the party and in the country about whether this is the right path. Lars Klingbeil and I feel that too."
Bas warned those dissatisfied within the SPD against hoping for a turnaround through a change at the top alone. It would "not help the SPD if heads are swapped but the substantive questions remain."
In polls on Saxony-Anhalt, the SPD had at times moved close to the five-percent threshold over the summer, which would leave it fearing for its place in the state parliament. Most recently, however, the figures from the polling institutes improved again, putting the party at between seven and nine percent.
Bas hopes the SPD in Saxony-Anhalt can now roughly hold its result from the last election. "In Saxony-Anhalt we got 8.4 percent at the last election. We are fighting with determination to hold that despite our weakness at federal level and to remain in the state parliament," she told the Funke papers.
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