From housing expropriator and capitalist hater to power and position haggler in a few months?
The appearances of ex-Juso boss and Olaf Scholz fighter Kevin Kühnert (32) after the federal election are astonishing: Suddenly the strict left is silent about dreams of socialism, his desire for a pact with the Left Party.
Reason: Kühnert can wait and be silent – because he has more power than ever before.
So Kühnert was able to benefit
► Norbert Walter-Borjans (69, “NoWaBo”) and Saskia Esken (60) are party leaders by his grace.
► Party vice Kühnert has moved into the Bundestag for the first time – with him almost 50 of his Jusos. The parliamentary group now: the majority on the left.
► Half of the parliamentary group is completely new, not yet sworn in.
► One third of the parliamentary group (68 MPs) is younger than 40.
It is now time to play it off!
Just:
► How do you get the big election winner Olaf Scholz (63) on the left course?
► Which posts of power jump out for Kühnert’s leftists?
The questions for the election winner Scholz: How much can he trust the Kühnert troops in coalition negotiations and as a possible chancellor? How far to the left does he have to go?
How Kühnert uses his power, how dependent the SPD bosses are on him and how little his troop thinks of Olaf Scholz is now shown in an NDR documentary (“Kevin Kühnert and the SPD”, 6 parts, comes to the cinema).
The key scenes
► Autumn 2019: Kühnert coaches NoWaBo / Esken against Scholz in the fight for the SPD chairmanship. Behind Kühnert – the power of the Jusos and the SPD left!
In the interview he says: “If NoWaBo and Esken do that, then we can pull it off from the top. Then we will define the course. “
► NoWaBo to Kühnert about Scholz: “What echoes out to us everywhere: ‘Don’t let Olaf do that. Definitely not Olaf! ‘”
► Kühnert buddy Borjans on Scholz: “He is one of the people who made sure that the SPD became small …”
► When his candidates win the vote for the party chairmanship against Scholz (with 46.33 percent) – thieving joy at Kühnert: “We’re through …!”
► When a candidate for a fight between Kühnert and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (48) for the post of party vice-president is turned away at the SPD party congress, and both get the post, Kühnert explains (“would have liked to win it”) why he can live with it : “The balance of power is right. That’s not half-left, but tight-left. “
► He declares salvation to be an opponent (“not an enemy”): an “essential mirror on the other side”.
► When Esken proposed Scholz as a candidate for Chancellor in the party executive committee in August 2020 without consulting Kühnert, Kühnert sensed: Treason! The times of the “privileged partnership” are over.
► When there is no way around Scholz either, he says: “I need breakfast with Olaf – nothing helps …”
► Purpose of the Kühnert-Scholz breakfast: “Discuss the coalition question with him”. Meant: red-red-green, Kühnert’s wish coalition. Kühnert about Scholz’s attitude: “I think he’s so little ideological that he can basically imagine it …”
In the documentary, his office manager warns him of the danger that he will become part of the SPD establishment: “Then people say: He’s like everyone else, the old guy pulling the strings.”
That was a year and a half ago. Now he’s arrived …
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