On Saturday, Germany’s ruling (SPD) formally declared incumbent the party’s candidate for .
SPD delegates at the party congress in Berlin overwhelmingly voted to maintain Scholz’s leadership, with only a few delegates opposing.
Germany at ‘crossroads’
During a speech at the conference, Scholz said that Germany was standing at a “crossroads.”
He called for fair wages, affordable housing and stable pensions for “ordinary people” while accusing his main challenger, the CDU/CSU conservative alliance, of engaging in politics designed “for the top 10%.”
He said it was unclear what the CDU/CSU stood for and argued that it had not developed clear policies to tackle the country’s labor shortage or the transition towards clean energy.
Scholz also called for the principles of sovereign borders to be protected, days after .
“This is a principle that every state must abide by, whether it’s a small state or a big and powerful one,” Scholz said.
“No country is the backyard of another, no country should have to fear its bigger neighbors. That is a central part of what we call Western values.”
In 2021, 96.2% of delegates voted in favor of nominating Scholz for chancellor in a secret ballot. The SPD became the largest party in parliament, leading Scholz to form a coalition government with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
SPD behind CDU, AfD in polls
Late last year, Scholz’s coalition collapsed after the chancellor dismissed former Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP, paving the way for .
Recent polling indicates that the , falling behind the CDU/CSU and the .
At a news conference in Hamburg, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader called for “fundamental change” and vowed to establish a “government that stops arguing” in an allusion to public spats between partners in Scholz’s coalition.
Also on Saturday, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a . The party formally nominated co-leader Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor.
sdi/lo (AP, dpa, Reuters)
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