Three SPD politicians, including two state premiers, are set to provisionally lead the party after Andrea Nahles announced her resignation. When the party will elect a new leader will be determined later this month.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Stein
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Manuela Schwesig, Malu Dreyer and Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, the three vice presidents of Germany's center-left Social Democrats (SPD), are set to lead the party on an interim basis until a successor to Andrea Nahles as party leader is elected.
Schwesig and Dreyer are the state premiers in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Rhineland-Palatinate respectively, while Schäfer-Gümbel is the leader of the opposition SPD faction in the Hesse state parliament.
The SPD is not due to elect a new party leader until December's party conference. A decision on moving up the date for the vote is expected to occur when the party's executive board meets in three weeks time.
Who could take over as head of Germany's Social Democrats?
Andrea Nahles has resigned as leader of the Social Democrats after the party's poor performance in the European elections. Whoever takes the reins inherits a party in disarray. DW looks at the potential candidates.
Image: Reuters/F. Bensch
Stephan Weil, premier of Lower Saxony
The 60-year-old leads a coalition of the SPD and the Christian Democrats in his northern state. In the Bundesrat — the council of Germany's 16 states and upper house of parliament — he serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and is deputy chairman of the Committee on European Affairs. Many in the SPD have long seen him as a possible new hope to lead the party forward.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Jaspersen
Manuela Schwesig, premier of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Schwesig, born and raised in the former East Germany, is the first woman to lead the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The 45-year-old previously served as minister of family affairs under Chancellor Angela Merkel, a role she used to push for equal opportunities for women and better state childcare facilities. She serves on the Bundesrat's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
Olaf Scholz, finance minister and vice chancellor
Scholz, 60, is seen by some of his fellow party members as a technocrat and is considered to belong to the SPD's conservative wing. As finance minister under Merkel, he has been committed to curbing public spending and keeping a lid on new debt. He also served as federal minister of labor and social affairs in Merkel's Cabinet from 2007 to 2009.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
Malu Dreyer, premier of Rhineland-Palatinate
A reasonably popular figure in the SPD, Dreyer was voted in as deputy party chairwoman in 2017 with 97.5% backing. Despite repeatedly stating she would not want to leave her western state for Berlin, she is still seen as a possible replacement for Nahles. The 58-year-old has served as premier of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2013 and is the first woman to hold the office.
Image: Imago/J. Jeske
Rolf Mützenich
The 59-year-old Bundestag member from Cologne is one of the deputy chairs of the SPD's parliamentary group. In that role, he is responsible for foreign affairs, defense and human rights policy. He is well respected within the party and could be tapped as interim SPD leader in the Bundestag.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M.Kappeler
Achim Post, SPD leader in North Rhine-Westphalia
The 60-year-old sociologist leads the SPD in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a deputy chair of the SPD's parliamentary group, overseeing budgetary affairs, finance and Europe. As secretary-general of the Party of European Socialists, he is also considered well connected at the European level.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. v.Jutrczenka
Martin Schulz, ex-SPD leader
The former president of the European Parliament has been suggested as another possible challenger. The 63-year-old ran as the SPD's candidate for chancellor in 2017 but lost to Merkel. He subsequently stepped down as SPD leader. He has already said he doesn't want the job back, but Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported last week that he was keen to lead the SPD parliamentary group.
Image: REUTERS
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Not candidates for party leadership
At a press conference in Berlin on Monday, all three SPD politicians ruled themselves out of the running for party leadership. The three maintained that they are focus instead on leading a party transition until a new head is elected.
"We have all ruled out being candidates for party leader," Schwesig said.
Schwesig added that her place is as the premier of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Similarly, Dreyer said it had long been her intention to run for re-election as the state premier for Rhineland-Palatinate.
Meanwhile, Schäfer-Gümbel intends to leave politics in the fall to take a position at Germany's Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
Nahles announced her resignation as SPD leader on Sunday, saying she wanted to give the party a chance to elect a new leader in an orderly way after a disastrous showing in the European elections. Her successor could prove crucial to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) are in a coalition with the SPD.
The Social Democrats came in third in the recent EU elections behind CDU and the environmentalist Green party. The SPD fared even worse in a recent Forsa poll, which showed an all-time national low in support at 12%.
