SPD Chief Lars Klingbeil Exudes Optimism Ahead of Confidence Vote
SPD chief Lars Klingbeil looks optimistically at his party. “I trust Olaf Scholz and I experience this also in the SPD faction” Klingbeil told the Mediengruppe Bayern newspapers (Monday’s editions).
“There was ‘grumbling’ and that was openly addressed. It has strengthened our cohesion.” The last few weeks have shown that one can gain a little more every day. The SPD is currently polling between 15 and 17 percent in opinion polls. On Monday, Chancellor Scholz will put the confidence vote to the parliament – with the expectation of losing and paving the way for new elections.
Klingbeil also formulated a demand for the CDU/CSU for the time after the confidence vote: “After the confidence vote, I expect the Union to pull together in the opposition, so that we can remain capable of action” said the party chairman. “We must urgently lower energy prices to secure industrial jobs. Here, there is a need for responsibility, not a refusal to work.”
The government is “broken apart, but the challenges facing the economy are not gone with it.” He accused the CDU of making a pre-election campaign out of the poor economic data: “I find it not right for the CDU to say: ‘We’ll wait six months.’ Perhaps the Union wants the narrative of the decline of the German industry for their election campaign.”
On Tuesday, the party will officially release its election program. It has already been known that the SPD will strongly advocate for tax cuts, stable pensions, a family start time, and the unbinding of the rent brake.
Klingbeil on this: “In contrast to the Union, we tell the people how we will finance it – with a moderate tax increase for the super rich, the Germany Fund, and a reform of the debt brake.” To secure jobs in the automotive industry, the SPD will “create fiscal incentives for the purchase of electric cars, especially those built in Germany” Klingbeil further said. “Simple purchase premiums like before, I do not see, but we are developing proposals that also apply on the European level.