Esken resigns as SPD leader

After six years at the helm of the SPD , Saskia Esken will not run for re-election at the federal party conference at the end of June. She announced this on Sunday evening on the ARD program " Bericht aus Berlin" (Report from Berlin) . "I am now giving up my party leadership position and making room for renewal," Esken said. She particularly wants to give young women the chance "to shape the future of our party," she said.

This ends weeks of uncertainty over Esken's political future. Co-leader Lars Klingbeil has not yet officially confirmed that he will run for party chairman again. However, prominent SPD politicians, including the Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate Alexander Schweitzer, had spoken out in favor of Klingbeil's re-election; Esken did not have such support. In an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung at the end of April, Klingbeil responded to the question of whether he would continue as chairman with the statement: "I very much enjoy being party chairman."

Bärbel Bas is now considered the favorite to succeed Esken as the dual leader. In an interview with the Funke Media Group on Saturday, she stated that she wanted to first establish herself as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. However, she also said: "I haven't ruled out the party leadership."

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, Esken made her decision several days ago and now felt it was time, after the cabinet had been formed, to make it public. She intends to retain her Bundestag mandate. She could take over the chair of a Bundestag committee, according to internal sources.

The 63-year-old had previously failed in her bid to become a federal minister and suffered significant defeats. For example, she tried in vain to gain support for a nomination as federal minister from the three factions within the Bundestag parliamentary group – the parliamentary Left, the Networkers, and the conservative Seeheimer Circle. Esken claimed to have prevented the integration of the Development Aid Ministry into the Foreign Office during the coalition negotiations with the CDU/CSU and would have liked to become Development Minister. However, this position was given to 35-year-old Reem Alabali-Radovan.

Esken, an education and digital expert, was elected chairwoman by SPD members in 2019, along with Norbert Walter-Borjans. Following Walter-Borjans's resignation in the fall of 2021, then-General Secretary Klingbeil became the new member of the dual leadership. While Klingbeil expanded his power and took over the parliamentary group chairmanship from Rolf Mützenich following the historic election defeat in February—16.4 percent, the worst federal election result in SPD history—criticism of Esken grew. Klingbeil, in turn, was accused of observing Esken's gradual dismantling. The Jusos, for example, criticized the "bottomless treatment" of Esken . She belongs to the party's left wing, as does Bärbel Bas.

Leading SPD politicians such as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Minister-President Manuela Schwesig were also driving Esken's withdrawal. While Esken has made significant contributions to the party's unity, she has also been accused of questionable public appearances. However, Klingbeil himself, now Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister in the coalition with the CDU and CSU, also faced sharp criticism at state party conferences in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein over the weekend. Among other things, he criticized the way the question of the chancellor candidacy was handled and the SPD's hopeless race with Olaf Scholz. Klingbeil's accumulation of offices was also criticized, as was his lack of humility after the defeat and the failure to come to terms with the past. A party commission is now to examine the reasons for the election defeat.

Even Esken's own Baden-Württemberg state association had recently refused to support her. The general secretary of the Southwest SPD, Sascha Binder, publicly spoke out against Esken as minister in an interview with the Badische Zeitung and the Südkurier . He did agree with her that four of the seven SPD cabinet posts should go to women. "But then it all comes down to who are the four best? And I don't see Saskia Esken among them," Binder said in the interview. When the state executive committee finally nominated three candidates for the federal executive committee at the end of April, Esken was not among them either . Her district association criticized her for being stuck to the party leadership "like glue."

Just last week, Esken remained tight-lipped about her future plans. Together with co-party leader Lars Klingbeil, she introduced the SPD ministers for the CDU/CSU coalition on Monday. She lashed out at Markus Söder, thanked Olaf Scholz, and praised the new government team. She dismissed questions about her own role in the future SPD leadership.

Alternative opportunities for Esken have been sought behind the scenes for weeks, with leadership of the Federal Agency for Civic Education being considered one option. With her withdrawal from the party leadership, the reshuffle at the top of the party could now be complete. The executive committee will meet at 8 a.m. on Monday morning. Since the previous general secretary, Matthias Miersch, a close confidant of Klingbeil, has now taken over leadership of the parliamentary group, Tim Klüssendorf, a member of the Bundestag from Schleswig-Holstein, just 33 years old, could become the new general secretary. Esken's successor is also likely to be decided by the executive committee very soon.