SPD politician Andreas Köhler accuses his party of making serious mistakes after it failed in the Berlin repeat election. The lawyer, who also worked for Giffey, calls a senator a “total failure”. He calls for a radical movement of chairs. But not at the top.
Shortly before the last round of exploratory talks by the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party in Berlin, an internal thesis paper caused unrest among the Social Democrats. The letter - written by the SPD politician Andreas Koehler, who last worked as a lawyer for the governing mayor Franziska Giffey - resembles a general settlement with the state party. The SPD in the capital is "intellectually burned out," writes Köhler, according to the "Spiegel" that has the letter. A number of factual and personal mistakes led to the devastating defeat in the House of Representatives elections, including transport and education policy. The voters were "fed up with SPD promises". "It was enough for everyone."
The voters saw it as sheer "indecent" that no one in the Senate wanted to take political responsibility for the repeat election. The SPD is disoriented when it comes to transport policy, and the Senate made mistakes after the riots on New Year's Eve. "We had no convincing answers and solutions for the attacks on the police, fire department or ambulance by young males in Neukölln," Koehler magazine quotes. The education senator is described in the paper as "a total failure".
A radical change is now necessary, writes Koehler - in Berlin and in the capital's SPD. A renewed left alliance is feasible, but only under completely different circumstances. All senators would have to be replaced on the SPD side, the departments should be swapped among the coalition partners. "We can't pretend that everything can / should stay the same. Our election swatter was too big for that." As a ruler, Giffey absolutely must continue. "Only she can manage and represent. No one else is in sight."
