(Bloomberg) — German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz snatched a first-round win for the leadership of his Social Democratic Party, boosting the chances of survival for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.
Scholz, the only candidate who unequivocally backed staying in government, took 22.7% of the ballots, according to the party’s tally on Saturday. He and his running mate, Brandenburg state politician Klara Geywitz, will face a leftist couple of government critics in the November run-off.
Merkel aides and investors will be relieved by the result, as there were last-minute doubts whether Scholz would be among the top two finishers. Opinion polls with wide margins of error and doubts over online voting security exacerbated uncertainties.
Relieved
“I’m relieved and at the same time very happy about this good result,” Scholz said at the party’s headquarters in Berlin, sidestepping questions about government policies to focus on party unity.
At stake is the direction of Merkel’s economic policy and the survival of her coalition in the twilight of her political career. The majority of Scholz’s opponents were from the SPD’s leftist camp and had demanded a series of concessions of Merkel, such as boosting welfare spending or adopting minimum pensions.
The leadership dispute coincides with a slowdown of Germany’s economic growth to an estimated 0.5% this year from 2.5% just two years ago. It comes only days after Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a Christian Democrat, proposed a peace-keeping force for northern Syria involving German troops. Her failure to consult the SPD, which is traditionally wary of such military commitments, renewed animosity between both parties.
A victory for Scholz in the Nov. 30 run-off would bolster the potential of the 58-year-old labor lawyer to seek the chancellorship when Merkel’s term ends in 2021.
What is unclear is whether the splintered leftist vote will now unite against Scholz and make the run-off more difficult, or whether his experience and name-recognition will carry him across the finish line.
Spending
Norbert Walter-Borjans, the 67-year-old former finance minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, and his running mate, legislator Saskia Esken, placed second with 21% of ballots.
Walter-Borjans, who is in favor of abandoning the government’s zero-deficit spending policy, suggested on Saturday night that it’s time to leave government in order to meet the party’s objectives of creating greater equality and opportunity.
“That’s difficult to implement in the grand coalition,” he said.
Scholz, who is also deputy chancellor, said he wouldn’t seek to polarize the debate in the second round as the objective was to unite the party. Bitter infighting among the Social Democrats had been blamed as part of the reason for their poor showing in opinion polls.
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(Adds finalists’ comments, details, context throughout.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Birgit Jennen in Berlin at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at [email protected], Raymond Colitt, Tony Czuczka
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