(de-news.net) – At the 2025 Bundesparteitag of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) convened in Berlin, Lars Klingbeil has been reaffirmed as party chairman, securing 64.9% of delegate support — a marked decline from his 2023 approval rating of 85.6%. In parallel, Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Bärbel Bas was elected co-chair with a commanding 95.0% share of the vote, significantly surpassing her predecessor Saskia Esken’s prior result of 82.6%. Klingbeil, acknowledging strategic miscalculations and a delayed response to evolving electoral dynamics, publicly accepted responsibility for the SPD’s historically diminished Bundestag showing of 16.4%. He formally takes on the roles of both party leader and chair of a parliamentary group.
Bas’ ascendancy to the co-chairmanship was accompanied by a concerted effort to foreground issues of social justice through empirically grounded references to systemic inequalities. Her discourse juxtaposed the marginalization experienced by recipients of basic income support against the backdrop of disproportionately high executive remunerations exceeding 1 million euros annually. Emphasizing education and labor market integration as mechanisms of social mobility, Bas advocated for reversing what she described as entrenched vertical class antagonisms.
General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf, transitioning from interim to formally elected status, articulated a vision aligned with the SPD’s parliamentary left. Since entering the Bundestag in 2021 as a representative of Schleswig-Holstein, Klüssendorf has espoused the strategic reorientation of the party as a “party of labor.” His confirmation was widely interpreted as an intentional consolidation of ideological coherence following electoral erosion.
In his valedictory address, former Chancellor Olaf Scholz reaffirmed the foundational status of respect as a core normative pillar of social democratic creed. He diagnostically attributed the ascendancy of right-wing populist movements within affluent liberal democracies to an erosion of a collective future, thereby positioning this phenomenon as an impediment to progressive continuity. Scholz accentuated the imperative that sociopolitical advancement must equitably encompass diverse strata of society. He invoked pivotal legislative undertakings – specifically the deregulatory reform of the right to self-determination as well as the substantive revision of citizenship law – as emblematic of progressive governance and described the tripartite coalition from 2021 bis 2024 as an enabling configuration for transformative modernization.
Held under the slogan “Change Begins With Us,” the congress adopted a principal motion addressing the February electoral losses. In his keynote address, former Minister-President of Lower Saxony Stephan Weil invoked the global resurgence of authoritarianism and right-wing extremism to reaffirm the SPD’s democratic legitimacy. Bundestag faction leader Matthias Miersch buttressed this claim by highlighting legislative achievements – particularly the contentious renewal of federal rent control statutes—as demonstrative of the party’s enduring commitment to social equity.
Confronting the party’s trajectory with critical urgency, the SPD youth organization Jusos characterized the prevailing strategic course as the most profound existential crisis since the party’s inception. Echoing Bas’ redistributive framework, they demanded more assertive interventions aimed at mitigating socioeconomic stratification and enhancing the perceptibility of SPD policy initiatives.
Finally, Yasmin Fahimi, Chair of the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), reinforced the imperative of a socially just ecological transformation. While affirming the non-negotiability of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, she cautioned against regulatory excess that might disproportionately burden the small and medium-sized enterprises, which constitutes over 99 percent of German companies. Her intervention underscored the necessity of balancing ecological imperatives with economic pragmatism.
