After three pitiful Years as the most unpopular German Chancellor in recorded history, Olaf Scholz was being pressured by members of his own party to open the way for much more well polled Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
But, in an unexpected twist, Pistorius took himself out of contention to become the country’s next leader, and cleared the way for Scholz to seek an unlikely second term in the February early election.
Social Democrats leaders struggle to fight back from a wide poll deficit ahead of the election.
They insist Scholz has achieved successes and that he was not responsible for the coalition collapse earlier this month.
But many inside the party were not convinced and staged a while week of arguments about the need for new leadership.
Associated Press reported:
“Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a video Thursday night that he has informed the party leadership he is “not available for a candidacy for the office of chancellor.” He said that ‘Olaf Scholz is a strong chancellor and he is the right candidate for chancellor’.”
After the embattled Chancellor fired his finance minister two weeks ago, the party members spent days on end trying to get rid of him.
“The Social Democrats’ rivals already determined who will lead their campaigns. The main opposition center-right Union bloc, which leads in polls, nominated Friedrich Merz as its challenger in September. Scholz’s remaining coalition partners, the Greens, named Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck to head their challenge on Sunday.
While Scholz has made clear for months that he intends to run for a second term and his party’s leadership had made clear that it backed him, the lack of a formal nomination created space for persistent speculation that the party might instead choose Pistorius, who enjoys much higher popularity.”
Two senior MPs said that said Scholz is ‘strongly linked with the failed coalition’, which brought Germany a stagnant economy.
They also said to be hearing many compliments for Pistorius.
“Pistorius repeatedly said he stands behind Scholz and gave no indication that he planned to run for chancellor, but also conspicuously didn’t rule it out until Thursday (21). The discussion, he said in the video released by the Social Democrats’ leadership, was damaging to the party.
‘I did not initiate this discussion, I did not want it and I did not bring myself into discussion for anything’, he said. ‘We now have a joint responsibility to end this debate’.
The party leadership is expected to formally nominate Scholz as its candidate for chancellor on Monday.
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