The party leftist Matthias Miersch is to lead the SPD’s federal election campaign as the new general secretary and defend the chancellor’s office. An almost impossible task – right?
The shocking news hit the comrades in the early afternoon. The general secretary of the SPD, Kevin Kühnert, is resigning with immediate effect and will no longer run for the Bundestag, it said in a statement. The reason, it quickly became clear: Kühnert’s mental illness. The 35-year-old is currently receiving medical treatment.
The SPD quickly arranged the successor: just a few hours later, party leaders Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken presented their committees with a successor: Matthias Miersch from Lower Saxony. The parliamentary group deputy and head of the SPD Hanover district is to temporarily hold the office of general secretary until 2025.
The SPD leadership is thus making a smart move and showing the courage to act quickly: the sudden vacuum that Kühnert’s resignation left behind and unsettled many in the party was filled less than half a day later. There was hardly any time to think about the impact on the mental life of social democracy before the new guy was pulled out of the hat.
Especially since the party leaders have found an experienced political professional in Miersch. The 55-year-old is Klingbeil’s confidante, has been a member of the Bundestag for almost two decades and is considered to be well connected. Miersch was also given the opportunity to succeed parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich if he vacated his place.
Miersch calls himself a “confident MP” who is not afraid of tough confrontations with political opponents and represents his issues with passion. Especially when it comes to his main topic, the energy transition, Miersch could push forward and refine the SPD’s attack department.
And there is another reason why Miersch is a well-balanced personality: with Kühnert, the left wing would have lost an important connection to the SPD leadership. Now the loss with Miersch is not only compensated for, but overcompensated: Miersch is co-spokesman for the Parliamentary Left, so the left wing of the faction has a direct contact point in the Willy Brandt House. Compared to Kühnert, Miersch also has significantly more political experience, including when it comes to election campaigns.
Video | That’s what Esken and Klingbeil say about Kühnert’s resignation
Miersch is now faced with the almost impossible task of getting the SPD out of the polls that it has been in for years and defending the Chancellery. The Social Democrats are currently at 16 percent, far behind the Union with 31 percent and also behind the AfD with 18 percent.
Above all, the new general secretary must prove that the SPD is still capable of campaigning. In the past few months, not everything went according to plan: the “fight against the right” before the European elections hardly caught on with voters, and the peace election campaign also backfired because the messages did not fit the Chancellor’s policies. Miersch must now bring a breath of fresh air to the party headquarters; ideas, strategies and messages are sought that will make social democracy a relevant force in the country again.
At the same time, the new guy also has to do a lot of internal work. The SPD is in a serious crisis. Recently, frustration with the unpopular SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz almost resulted in open rebellion. The centrifugal forces of the traffic lights are straining the patience of the comrades, and social democratic projects close to their hearts are being thwarted. Last but not least, the debate about stricter asylum laws threatens to divide the party.
Can Miersch do all of this? He has to at least try. Even if he is more of an emergency solution for Kevin Kühnert, who unexpectedly resigned, Miersch is considered a clever strategist and well-connected political professional. It is precisely these two skills that are important now.