SPD after the election defeat

t online Article by Johannes Bebermeier • 2 hours. SPD after the election defeat The SPD has had a bitter election evening. Very few people think that simply going back to business as usual is an option. Nancy Faeser could feel this – and Olaf Scholz. Nancy Faeser tries to smile as she comes in, but she doesn't really succeed. Not today, not after this weekend, not after this defeat of their SPD in Hesse. Standing next to her on this cloudy Monday afternoon in the Willy Brandt House are the Bavarian top candidate Florian von Brunn and SPD leader Saskia Esken. They don't even try to be in a good mood. For the SPD there are “not satisfactory figures” in both federal states, says Esken at the beginning of the press conference. They "fell short of our demands and our potential", despite "committed election campaigns" with "national political issues and a clear stance". What Esken doesn't mention at all: the federal political issues and - to put it cautiously - the stance of the traffic light coalition, which is not always clear. And she also doesn't address Nancy Faeser's difficult dual role between the Federal Ministry of the Interior in Berlin and the campaign headquarters in Wiesbaden. Both played a role in the results, some say the decisive one. And both will keep the SPD busy for a long time. Many in the party don't want to just go back to business as usual. Some people don't think it's a good idea for Nancy Faeser to continue in Berlin. And above all, doubts about the course of their chancellor are growing. Historically miserable For the SPD it was a historic election evening of the miserable kind. Things have never been this bad, not in Bavaria and not in Hesse either. The numbers are terrible, someone said that evening. In Bavaria, the first to warn that the five percent threshold is now dangerously close, probably only half in jest. A clear defeat was expected there. The result in Hesse is particularly bitter. It was clear that for Nancy Faeser the trees don't grow to the sky either. But the fact that they are being cut back significantly is not only painful for many in the SPD, but also an alarm signal. Anyone who thought Faeser's dual role was a bad idea from the start has now been confirmed. Faeser also admitted the obvious on Monday. "I've given more than 200 percent in the last few months," she says. "But of course my office as Federal Minister brought with it a lot of polarization and headwind." She still wants to continue as Interior Minister, and she also makes that clear. Despite the major and minor mishaps, in the election campaign and in the Interior Ministry. SPD leader Saskia Esken is trying to make people forget the doubts about Faeser with effusive praise. She “did a great job” as Interior Minister and “achieved much more than her predecessors,” including during the election campaign. There is therefore no reason to change anything. "A 'Lame Duck'" Of course, not everyone is so euphoric. The opposition sees its chance to make life difficult for Faeser. "Ms. Faeser has lost the trust of the people in Hesse and throughout Germany," says Alexander Throm, the Union's domestic policy spokesman, t-online. "It failed in Hesse and is a 'lame duck' in the federal government." These background noises are already unpleasant enough for Faeser. Especially since it has a highly complex task ahead of it with migration policy, where improvements can be achieved in multiple steps. And where Faeser will never make everyone happy. In addition, even in the SPD, some people think that she can actually not be retained as Federal Minister of the Interior. One of the more friendly interpretations in the SPD about Faeser and the balance sheet of her dual role is: Behind the scenes you are always smarter. It was nothing, but what's the use of complaining, that's what that means. In the traffic light coalition, it is now needed especially in migration policy. An SPD member of the Bundestag formulated the other interpretation on the evening of the election: "Nancy Faeser would be doing herself a favor if she tried to become minister in Hesse." It's probably intended as a face-saving way out. But that doesn't seem likely at the moment. Faeser himself would still have to change his mind. The SPD in Hesse would have to make a better offer to the CDU than the Greens, with whom the Christian Democrats have been in government for ten years. And then a government reshuffle would be needed in Berlin, which the Chancellor wants to avoid at all costs. Difficult. The fact that possible replacement interior ministers are now being diligently distributed within the SPD probably doesn't change this. Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, for example, or parliamentary group deputy Dirk Wiese. Both, however, would entail a major cabinet reshuffle, if only to ensure that parity between women and men is not completely abandoned.