Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Northeast SPD elects new board: course for local elections in 2024

Schwerin (dpa/mv) - With a delay due to corona, the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will elect a new board on August 20th and 21st in Rostock.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Northeast SPD elects new board: course for local elections in 2024

Schwerin (dpa/mv) - With a delay due to corona, the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will elect a new board on August 20th and 21st in Rostock. As party deputy Christian level announced on Friday in Schwerin, the incumbent party leadership also wants to give the go-ahead for preparations for the local elections in 2024 at the state party conference. For this purpose, the executive board submitted an application in which the focal points of further party work are named. All in all, the applications submitted so far filled 140 pages. They concern questions of educational policy and social justice, but also pension planning, gender equality or the lifetime of nuclear power plants.

According to the level, Manuela Schwesig, who has been at the head of the state party since 2017, has been proposed for re-election by several district associations. So far there are no opposing candidates. Despite recent criticism of her pro-Russia course, the 48-year-old's position in the party is unchallenged. The clear victory of the SPD in the state elections almost a year ago was largely attributed to the party and government leader.

So far there have been four applicants for the three deputies. Nadine Julitz, Christian level and Stefan Sternberg are back. The Greifswald member of the Bundestag, Erik von Malottki, is once again pushing into the top management. He ran unsuccessfully in the last election in March 2019. The election party conference planned for spring 2021 had been postponed due to the corona pandemic.

As reported level further, the request of the board should help district and local associations to prepare for the local elections. It contains positions on the future energy supply, on the topics of housing and local transport and on strengthening democratic participation rights in the municipalities. "We want to start the internal party debate early and nominate as many candidates as possible," said level.

In local elections, the SPD in the north-east usually fared significantly worse than in state elections. In 2019, for example, the party only won 11 percent of the votes in the elections for the city and municipal councils in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and in the state elections in 2021 it was almost 40 percent.