Klingbeil leaves open whether he will run again for SPD leadership

Bärbel Bas resigned on Monday as federal labour minister and SPD co-leader. According to Die Welt, she gave a death in her family and attacks 'from the ranks of the coalition partner' as her reasons. Co-party leader Lars Klingbeil said in ZDF's 'heute journal' on Monday: 'I know what criticism there is.'

Klingbeil said: 'It is not about me, and it is not about me clinging to office, but about the best possible line-up.' He announced a party congress 'around the turn of the year' at which 'the entire leadership of the SPD' would stand for election, and said he wanted to keep the dual leadership. Die Welt reported the congress would be held in December or January. Whether he would run again as party chair, Klingbeil left open.

Juso chair Philipp Türmer told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland that the announced congress laid the ground for holding 'all discussions about the future of the SPD with the breadth of the party'. 'We need a plan and ideas for the future again – and heads who credibly stand for them,' Türmer said. He said it was good 'that everything comes on the table' and that Klingbeil's signal of readiness for a broad personnel restart deserved recognition. Die Welt reported the Jusos had criticised that Klingbeil and Bas held both the party chair and ministerial offices.

In ARD's 'Brennpunkt', Klingbeil said 'limits had been crossed'. In ZDF's 'heute journal', he said 'political attacks' should be scaled back 'especially in these times, where the important political actors know there is currently a death'. Klingbeil said Bas had put several laws into 'early coordination' ('Frühkoordinierung') despite the bereavement, and that the agreed timetable for the pension reform had been kept. Union politicians had accused Bas of delaying agreed reforms, Die Welt reported.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), who Die Welt reported is also discussed for the party leadership, said at a press conference on Monday that he had expected no 'additional public attacks on a minister' at such a 'tragic, sad occasion'. 'I believe there can be no two opinions about that,' he said. Pistorius denied having his own ambitions for the post.

FAZ reported on the change at the labour ministry. It wrote that designated minister Alexander Schweitzer, a deputy SPD chair and Rhineland-Palatinate state premier, said pension must be 'clear and secure' and that proposals of what he called a 'professoral commission' 'must not receive SPD support'. FAZ noted the commission's leading members included Pascal Reddig (CDU), Florian Dorn (CSU) and Annika Klose (SPD). FAZ also reported Bas's ministry had planned to present the first and decisive draft law implementing the reform package in October, and that its agenda showed gaps, including the coalition-agreed change from a daily to a weekly maximum working time.