The chancellor, given the loss in the polls, will try to run for a second term in the early legislative elections of February 23, 2025 in Germany.
Olaf Scholz was officially named candidate for his center-left party on Monday to run for a second term as chancellor in the early legislative elections of February 23, 2025 in Germany, AFP learned from internal party sources.
The leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has spoken out “unanimously” in his favor, the same source specified, after the recent dissensions within the party on the relevance of competing with the very unpopular chancellor, given the loser by the polls.
Lagging behind in the polls
Delegates will still have to validate the candidacy at a congress on January 11. The 66-year-old chancellor, who more or less proclaimed himself a candidate after the breakdown of his coalition with the Greens and the Liberals on November 6, subsequently had to face a revolt within his social-democrat party where some spoke in favor of the very popular Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
From now on, the SPD intends to unite behind Olaf Scholz, even if the bet looks risky for the oldest party in Germany, credited with only around 15% of voting intentions in the polls. The conservative opposition CDU/CSU received more than double that (33%), and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was ahead of it with 18%.
A fragile candidate
Olaf Scholz, «visage» of the failure of a government marked by perpetual internal disputes, is “probably the weakest, least suitable candidate for chancellor that the SPD has ever presented”asserts the magazine The mirror.
His coalition, in power since the end of 2021, was shattered after the dismissal of the liberal Finance Minister due to disagreements that had become insurmountable in terms of budgetary policy, in the midst of an industrial crisis in Europe's largest economy.
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