After the crisis meeting, SPD leaders Bärbel Bas and Lars Klingbeil will remain in their posts, with no mention of personnel changes. Bas said that the party will now concentrate on the economy and jobs, and in particular move against high petrol prices, adding that “it cannot be that oil companies are gouging us”. Klingbeil added that he received “a lot, a lot of support for his proposals” during the special session that he had outlined earlier in the week. These proposals call for adopting the “Luxembourg model” in which a price cap on fuel is set several times a week, and for a discussion of a “surplus‑profit tax”; he rejected any increase in the value‑added tax.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, the party presidency convened an extended meeting that gathered SPD federal ministers, state premiers, members of the parliamentary group, Spitzenkandidaten, and selected municipal representatives.
The recent SPD crisis was sparked by the results of the March state elections in Baden‑Württemberg and Rhineland‑Palatinate. In the Stuttgart state parliament the SPD managed only 5.5 % of the vote-just enough to qualify-while in Rhineland‑Palatinate it secured 25.9 % but lost nearly ten percentage points, a loss that likely means it will no longer be able to present a future premier.