Candidate for chancellor: A Pistorius wave is rolling in the SPD - will Scholz tip over?

STERN Candidate for chancellor: A Pistorius wave is rolling in the SPD - will Scholz tip over? Julius Betschka/Martin Debes/Miriam Hollstein/Florian Schillat • 12 hours • 7 minutes reading time Whatsapp chats, angry members, demands to swap candidates. The SPD is growing afraid of losing the election with Olaf Scholz. The calls for Boris Pistorius are getting louder. Boris Pistorius is breathing down Olaf Scholz's neck. Literally. When the Chancellor makes his government statement on Wednesday afternoon, his Defense Minister will sit behind him on the government bench, just an arm's length from the Chancellor's chair. But Scholz is also feeling the breath of his party friend on his neck in a figurative sense. The 64-year-old Pistorius is still sitting in the second row. But there are increasing voices in the party demanding that he should step forward and become the Chancellor's candidate instead of the Chancellor. The minister by Scholz's grace has - now that everything is at stake in the race for the next government - become a competitor for the Chancellor. Olaf Scholz has the disadvantage of failure Can Scholz still lead the SPD into the early federal election campaign, with the disadvantage of the failed traffic light leader, the most unpopular Chancellor of all time? Wouldn't Pistorius, the popularity minister, be the more promising candidate? The Social Democrats have not yet officially decided, although they had the chance to do so on Monday. For the first time since the traffic light coalition collapsed, the presidium and party executive met. A formal decision in favor of Scholz might have stopped the debate - but the top brass was reluctant to make a decision. Which direction the journey takes, whether a short-term candidate swap takes place: Scholz's performance in the government statement is now likely to decide this. The discussion is dangerous for the party because a rift is opening up that seemed to have been forgotten for a few years, between top and bottom, between establishment and base. Wherever the Social Democrats are meeting to discuss the situation, he is leaving again. As was the case last Thursday, when the SPD leadership held a member conference with Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken. There was great discontent, and several members reportedly openly asked whether Pistorius could still be nominated. The question of the swap has long since reached the Bundestag faction. A WhatsApp message from a former employee at the party headquarters is circulating among MPs. "Solidarity with a person, with the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is a great asset," the message says. "An even greater asset is the responsibility towards our party, our values, to be able to implement them for the people in a way that is legitimized by good election results. Taking on this responsibility is not easy, but it is an obligation for our party leadership. And this responsibility means that the party must convince Olaf to clear the way for a new beginning." For days now, too, the number of voices calling for a new formation has been growing at the grassroots level. The first to do so was two comrades from Hamburg, the city that Scholz governed for a long time as First Mayor. "The SPD has a chance and should seize it," wrote Tim Stoberock and Markus Schreiber, both members of the Hamburg Parliament, on Instagram on Monday, posting a picture of Pistorius. Scholz had failed to "take people along with him and communicate leadership strength." Boris Pistorius, on the other hand, can "convey new confidence" because he stands for "action and clear language": "But this can only work if Olaf Scholz realizes that he is helping the social democracy by renouncing his candidacy and that he is harming us all by running again. Scholz must now propose Pistorius as a candidate for chancellor and "do our country a service in doing so." The first district administrator also joins the debate in Stern. "In troubled times, especially when people are unsettled, clear lines and decisions are needed," says Thomas Will, district administrator in the Groß-Gerau district and district chairman of the SPD. "I currently see these qualities best in Boris Pistorius. He has government responsibility and an excellent international reputation." And Giorgio Nasseh, district council member in Groß-Gerau, told Stern: "Boris Pistorius is the most popular politician in Germany, and that as Minister of Defense - a position that brought down many of his predecessors such as Rudolf Scharping, Franz Josef Jung and Christine Lambrecht. In the midst of a security crisis, Pistorius is leading the ministry safely and prudently, which in my view makes him an ideal candidate for chancellor for the SPD."