The Hessian SPD wants to start with Nancy Faeser as the driving force in state elections. But Chancellor Scholz would probably be reluctant to do without the interior minister in his cabinet and has allegedly agreed with her that she will retain her office if she runs for office. The coalition partners are not very enthusiastic about this.
Politicians from the Greens and FDP have warned Nancy Faeser of a possible dual role as SPD top candidate in Hesse and Federal Minister of the Interior. Konstantin von Notz, Vice President of the Greens in the Bundestag, told the "Handelsblatt": "A state election campaign as a top candidate demands the whole person, just like the office of Federal Minister of the Interior - especially in these times." FDP party leader Wolfgang Kubicki told the newspapers of the Funke media group that the Federal Ministry of the Interior was "not a suitable campaign platform in these serious times".
The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" had reported that Faeser would remain Federal Minister of the Interior even in the event of a top SPD candidate in Hesse. She had agreed on this with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Von Note explained that in each of these two tasks - top candidate in the state election campaign and Federal Minister of the Interior - one is "maximumly involved in terms of appointments and personalities". "Wanting to do both together and in parallel would inevitably lead to neglecting one of the tasks and would simply be highly error-prone." The state elections in Hesse are on October 8th.
This Friday, Faeser, who is also the SPD chairwoman in Hesse, is to explain her plans at an SPD event in Friedewald - including a possible top candidate for the state elections. A spokesman for the SPD in Hesse said when asked about the "SZ" report that it was "speculation". On Friday, however, "a wise decision" will be made. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Chancellery initially did not want to comment on the report.
With the sentence "My heart is in Hesse" at a party conference last spring, Faeser fueled many of the expectations of the Hessian comrades. Since then, however, the 52-year-old has stubbornly avoided making a clear commitment to whether she also sees her political future in her home state.
Almost all parties represented in the Hessian state parliament have already declared which top personnel they will campaign with for the vote - except for the SPD and the Left Party. The Christian Democrats are entering the race with the incumbent Prime Minister, Boris Rhein. Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir wants to stand in for the Greens, who are currently co-governing. An election victory for the SPD in Hesse is anything but certain due to the strong competition from the CDU and the Greens. In an election poll last fall, the CDU received 27 percent of the votes, while the Greens and SPD each received 22 percent of the voters' approval.
