BERLIN (AP) — While Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets world leaders in Brazil, a discussion is swirling in his party at home about whether he should seek a second…
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets world leaders in Brazil, a discussion is swirling in his party at home about whether he should seek a second term as German leader in an early election expected in February.
Unlike their rivals, Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats haven’t yet formally nominated their candidate for chancellor in the vote expected Feb. 23. And that is generating persistent speculation that the party might instead choose to run with Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who enjoys higher popularity. Party leaders and Cabinet ministers insist that Scholz will be the candidate but have struggled to tamp down talk of a switch.
Two influential lawmakers said late Monday that Scholz’s “current standing is strongly linked with the … coalition” that he led until it collapsed two weeks ago in a dispute about how to revive Germany’s stagnant economy.
Wiebke Esdar and Dirk Wiese, who lead a group of Social Democratic lawmakers from North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, said in a statement that while Scholz’s work and decisions will be judged far more positively “at some distance,” a debate is playing out in lawmakers’ districts.
“In the center is the question of what the best political lineup is now for this election,” they said.
