The Hessian SPD is facing the most important personnel decision for the state elections in autumn: Federal Minister of the Interior and SPD state leader Nancy Faeser will announce at the party’s Hesse summit on Friday in Friedewald whether she wants to run for the office of Prime Minister. It is also eagerly awaited which decision Faeser will make for her position in the federal government if she runs in Hesse: will the 52-year-old then remain federal interior minister in the state election campaign?
In recent months, the interior minister has stubbornly avoided a clear confession from Faeser as to whether she sees her political future in her home state. However, both in Berlin coalition circles and in political Wiesbaden, it is assumed that she will throw her hat in the ring in Hesse.
According to an unconfirmed media report, Faeser is said to have already agreed with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to remain Federal Minister of the Interior if there is a top candidate in Hesse. This conceivable double role has already met with massive criticism from political competitors: It is said that it is almost impossible to perform both tasks well at the same time.
In Hesse, the Social Democrats have been in opposition since 1999. Even with a top candidate who is now well-known nationwide, an SPD victory in Hesse would by no means be certain: In an election poll last fall, the CDU in Hesse received 27 percent of the votes, the Greens and SPD landed at 22 percent each.
The Hessian Christian Democrats are entering the race with the incumbent prime minister, Boris Rhein, who only a few months ago replaced the long-serving head of government, Volker Bouffier (CDU). Vice Prime Minister and Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir is running for the Greens, which have been co-governing in Hesse since 2014.
Should Faeser become SPD top candidate, there would be a three-way battle between the best-known Hessian politicians in the state elections on October 8th. It is difficult to imagine that the former SPD parliamentary group leader would only become a junior partner in a state government or return to the tough opposition bench in the Hessian state parliament if the Social Democrats lost the election.
