Kuhnert’s resignation, a year before the general election, poses a new challenge to the already struggling SPD. In June’s European Parliament elections, the party recorded its worst national vote result in more than 100 years. The party’s national approval rating currently stands at 16%, nearly 10 points below its result in the last federal election in 2021. At the same time, approval ratings for the SPD-led coalition government are at historic lows.
Last month, the SPD won a suspended sentence after defeating a hard-fought far-right group in the eastern state of Brandenburg. However, the victory of the local SPD candidate in the state was due in no small part to the fact that he distanced himself from the party’s national leaders, including Scholz.
Finding a replacement for Kuhnert will not necessarily be an easy task, given the party’s low poll numbers. Kuhnert appeared on German nightly political talk shows, often attacking the SPD’s political opponents.
One of the SPD’s national leaders, Lars Klingbeil, expressed confidence that the party could be organized for a general election despite Kuhnert’s defeat.
“We want to win this election,” Klingbeil told reporters. “We will do everything we can to establish ourselves as professionals, and it is my strong belief that success can be achieved by design.”
SPD’s other leader, Saskia Esken, said a candidate to replace Kuhnert would be discussed at a meeting of the party leadership on Monday night and announced in due course.
Kuhnert’s resignation comes just two weeks after the two national leaders of the Green Party, one of the three parties in the current coalition government, announced they would step down following a series of poor election results. It was done.
