Berlin – Even before the working groups of the traffic light parties met at the federal level, a bitter power struggle had taken place behind the scenes. The Greens and FDP could only look on in amazement. At the Social Democrats, meanwhile, the tatters flew. The noise, of which the public hardly noticed, broke out in the working group on the subject of “Equality, Diversity”, where two personalities got the SPD going.
The MP Leni Breymaier should be in charge of this area: The former SPD state chairman of Baden-Württemberg has numerous fans in radical feminist circles, who often position themselves against the consensus of experts and those affected – for a consequent ban on sex purchases, such as the so-called Provides Nordic model. This is what the left-wing extremist MLPD demands, but not the SPD. The party organization SPD Queer saw Breymaier’s nomination as a provocation, as it rejected legislative proposals by the future coalition partners FDP and Greens, which provided for a legal strengthening of rights for trans people – not out of coalition reasons, but out of conviction.
Breymaier considers self-determination for trans people to be a fatal mistake, from which women – from which trans-people are avowedly excluded – are to be protected. Now two of these trans women have just entered the Bundestag for the Greens, for the party with which the SPD wants to govern in the future. SPD leader Olaf Scholz had made it clear before the election that a self-determination law would come with him. Not only in the SPD Queer was Breymaier’s nomination seen as a cross shot from the party’s southwest regional organization against the party headquarters. After hectic conversations and phone calls, Breymaier was demoted, now Petra Köpping’s assistant, who heads the working group. As Saxon State Minister for Social Affairs and Social Cohesion, Köpping had clearly campaigned “for more acceptance of sexual and gender diversity”.
Breymaier’s supporters saw this personal rogue as treason and initiated the touching action # BlumenfürLeni on Twitter. Transphobic activists paid homage to their idol with at least 14 bouquet deliveries to their Bundestag office.
There are no flowers for Karamba Diaby. As a declared opponent of self-determination, he too belongs to the working group that is supposed to strengthen the rights of trans people. The Halle SPD politician actually embodies what equality and diversity mean. When right-wing extremists shelled his office in early 2020, Diaby replied confidently: “I will not be intimidated”. The Senegalese native won a direct mandate in the federal election, making him a leading voice for diversity. But in the Bundestag, Diaby refused to vote on legislative proposals for self-determination and justified this with objections from a controversial expert appointed by the CDU.
The struggle for one’s own emancipation is no guarantee for empathy with other disadvantaged groups. Social cohesion also consists of perceiving the disadvantage of others as unbearable. The internal party quarrels of the SPD have clearly shown how far the road is still there.