Scholz to run for German chancellor again

The chancellor has stated that his Social Democratic Party was “united’ and “determined” to enter the next election “together”

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has announced his plans to run for the government’s head post again in 2025. He also dismissed poor poll results for his party as merely a “stimulus” to do better, as he talked to journalists at a two-hour conference in Berlin before his summer vacation.

Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) suffered its worst nationwide election result at the European Parliament elections in early June, where it got just under 14% of the votes. The party’s rating also stands at around 14%, according to ARD Deutschlandtrend survey results published in early July.

According to the chancellor, his party was still “determined to go into the next federal election campaign together and to win.” He also admitted that the poll results were “not good” but stated that his party would be able to show that the SPD-led government made the right decisions during its tenure and would “succeed in convincing everyone of this.”

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When asked whether he himself would follow the footsteps of US President Joe Biden, who recently abandoned his 2024 re-election bid, Scholz maintained he was still determined to run and win in 2025.

“I will run for chancellor to become the chancellor again,” he said. Under the German election system, a party that gets most of the people’s votes at the federal parliamentary election normally gets a chance to form a government, usually in a coalition with other parties. Currently, the government coalition is led by Scholz’s Social Democrats and also includes the Greens and the Free Democratic Party. Most major parties also usually name their chancellor candidates ahead of the vote as part of their election campaign.

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Scholz himself called his party “very united.” Recent poll results published by the German media paint another picture. According to a survey conducted in early July, only a third of SPD members believe Scholz should run again as the party’s candidate for chancellor, with 67% saying that a different candidate would give it a better chance of achieving a good result in next year’s elections.

A third of party members in particular named Defense Minister Boris Pistorius as a suitable person for that role. More than a half of the SPD members (51%) also believe the Social Democrats are in a serious crisis, according to the same poll conducted by the Forsa Institute on behalf of the RND media outlet. Still, as many as 55% of the SPD members also stated they were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with Scholz. The poll was conducted between July 8 and July 12 and involved 1,001 SPD members.

Data presented by the German private online statistics aggregator, Statista, showed that Scholz’s popular support has hit one of its lowest points since early 2022, with only 28% of Germans assessing his work as a chancellor positively and 67% viewing it negatively in June.