The SPD party leadership would like the SPD parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, as candidate for Chancellor for the 2021 federal election. Cicero magazine, citing SPD leadership circles, wrote that Mützenich was the preferred candidate of party leaders Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans. Both have been SPD party leaders since December 2019.

Even before the CDU party congress, Mützenich’s candidacy is supposed to be assured. Mützenich is 60 years old and a foreign policy expert. He is considered to be leftist, as are the party leaders.

Instead, many in the SPD want to see Finance Minister Olaf Scholz as candidate for Chancellor, including the association in the large state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The irony is that this national association once nominated Walter-Borjans and Esken. The SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag is also in favor of nominating Scholz, press reports have said.