The executive committee of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) nominated Chancellor Olaf Scholz as the party’s main candidate in the upcoming early elections on Monday, following a difficult and controversial internal debate.
Party members should confirm Scholz’s candidacy at the national party conference on January 11.
Over the past two weeks, SPD politicians and party officials have held an intense public debate over the political future of the chancellor, who leads a fractious coalition government and suffers from poor poll ratings.
Some people in the SPD advocated for Solac to be replaced in the upcoming election campaign by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who is considered by many to be the most popular minister in the government.
Last Thursday, Pistorius ruled out a possible candidacy and pledged his support for Solac, paving the way for his nomination.
Early parliamentary elections in Germany should be held in February. They come after the collapse of Scholz’s ruling three-party coalition, which fell apart amid heated debate over how to close major gaps in the government’s 2025 budget.
Polls suggest the SPD could achieve a historically poor showing in national elections, with recent polls showing support for the party between 14 and 16 percent.
That would be a big drop from the 25.7 percent the Social Democrats won in 2021, and a bitter disappointment for a party that has been one of the main players in German politics for more than a century.
The centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) have a clear lead in the polls with between 32 and 37 percent.
This has made opposition leader Friedrich Mertz the favorite to replace Scholz as chancellor in the next German government.
