Kevin Kühnert knows this moment. When so much anger has built up that it just has to get out. Against the government, your own party. But the fact that it would happen to him one day, especially with such severity, doesn’t leave a political professional like Kühnert unmoved.
His grace period is over. He should remember where he comes from and who carried him into office. A courageous SPD general secretary is needed.
Kühnert seems touched after the Jusos literally stopped him late on Saturday evening at their federal congress in Braunschweig. He was its chairman for four years. He is now an official of the party that, in the Jusos’ view, is increasingly abandoning its ideals and values to the flames.
“You’re right in some places,” Kühnert responded to the criticism. The SPD had become “too satisfied”. But he also warns: “It will not be enough to insult Christian Lindner on every stage” and to complain that the SPD has not yet implemented the “pure doctrine”. “We will have to be more creative.” Thin applause. The frustration runs deep.
The relationship with the parent party is tense and sometimes disturbed. It is part of the job description of youth associations to be rebellious and to be tough on the federal party. But the criticism in Braunschweig is brutal. Wrong content, wrong strategy, wrong course. It could be a first foretaste of the SPD federal party conference at the beginning of December, where numerous Jusos will be among the delegates. They will vote on proposals, re-elect the party leadership and possibly punish them.
In any case, the SPD must be prepared for a tough confrontation with its offspring. On Friday, Philipp Türmer, 27, was elected as the new Juso boss. Even in his application speech, he takes a verbose approach to Olaf Scholz, who apparently forgot to be a social democrat in “his castle, the Federal Chancellery.” Turmer is also likely to make himself clear at the federal party conference. In order to make a name for himself, but also to address the Chancellor directly: Scholz canceled his participation in the Juso Federal Congress for the second time.
Saskia Esken is the first to feel the dissatisfaction. The co-party leader will give a welcoming speech on Saturday morning. It’s not going to be nice, as the brief clapping on their way to the stage suggests. It’s great, says Esken in greeting, to see the Jusos so bright so early on. A gross misjudgment.
The mood is depressed, Saturday morning or not. Things are seething among the party’s young talent. In particular, Chancellor Scholz’s announcement that he wanted to deport people “finally” and “on a large scale” had a lasting effect on the youth association. A demand “straight from the vocabulary of the right-wing mob,” the Jusos believe, and their new chairman “could puke.”
Esken takes on the task, which is at least thankless and even impossible, of justifying the Chancellor’s asylum policy. Esken tried to quietly criticize Scholz because she was also shocked by the choice of words. But if you read the entire interview, you can already see the “holistic approach to the traffic light’s migration policy.”
Silence in the hall.
It hurts them too, but there have to be clear and reliable rules.
Silence in the hall. Coughing, backing of chairs.
And with the Opportunity Residence and Skilled Immigration Act, great progress has been made, says Esken, which would not have been possible with the Union.
Silence in the hall. Some throw their jackets on and leave the room.
Esken’s attempt to explain asylum policy or even to put it in a better light fails. A Juso who was present sent a text message saying that he should go get a coffee – there were over a dozen requests to speak about Esken’s speech. All of them are devastating for the SPD leader.
There is talk of a “deportation industry” that is a “wrecking ball” of social democratic values. One threatens: “We are ready to continue fighting with you, but only if you keep your promises.”
The young people are standing up: The SPD already knows this from the “No GroKo” campaign after the 2017 federal election, with which Kevin Kühnert drove the party leadership forward. The new Juso boss Türmer also leaves no doubt that he is not afraid of confrontation with the top.
When Esken was elected party leader in 2019 with the support of the Jusos, he felt something like a new beginning, says Türmer. And now? “Dear Saskia, I don’t see this departure.” Germany may have a social democratic chancellor – but Scholz himself seems to forget that. At the moment he has the feeling that the SPD is “just a very small thorn in the side of the Federal Chancellery.” “There has to be more of this.”
Türmer wants to overturn the “ungodly” debt brake and demands that the Chancellor make the fight against poverty a “top priority”. Regarding Scholz’s “respect election campaign” he hurls in the direction of the Chancellery: “What has become of it? I am horrified.”
Although Scholz is not there himself, he is omnipresent. When Esken was said goodbye, delegates held up the “Spiegel” cover page with its controversial deportation cancellation in the air in an accusatory manner. Then the Chancellor’s quote: “We finally have to deport people on a large scale.” They crossed out the word “deport” and replaced it with demands such as “fight climate change” and “build new housing.”
It is obvious that the Jusos want to become more visible and louder again after the difficult (and inevitably quieter) Corona years. The now retired Juso chairwoman Jessica Rosenthal began her term of office in 2020 the way it has now ended: via video. She will soon be a mother, wants to concentrate on her family, and sent a video message to Braunschweig.
In addition, the surprising SPD victory in the 2021 federal elections also disciplined the Jusos and perhaps even took them by surprise. Slightly more experienced comrades in the Bundestag still complain today that the next generation still has to learn their craft. But they also say: They, the Jusos, are conscious of power. They now have 50 members of the SPD parliamentary group. A power bloc without which the Chancellor and the coalition would not have a majority. But in contrast to his predecessor Rosenthal, the new Juso boss does not sit in the Bundestag. This should give Türmer more freedom to criticize the government’s course. “No coalition is an end in itself, not even this one,” he said in his first interview as Juso leader, openly questioning the traffic light alliance. The Chancellor’s party is likely to face turbulent times.
The party leadership probably also suspects this, as it promotes good cooperation among the Jusos. Hubertus Heil, Federal Labor Minister and member of the SPD executive board, summed it up in his greeting on Saturday afternoon: “Work your way to the party leadership, that is the job of the Jusos.” But during all clarification processes and tough arguments, one must ensure that no injuries occur.
