New chief of the Northern SPD: “Daniel Günther usually jumps as a tiger and ends up as a bed rug” | EUROtoday

Ulf Kampf, 53, has been mayor of Kiel since 2014 and was elected with an absolute majority twice in a row. This Saturday, Schleswig-Holstein’s SPD voted him 93.9 % as its new state chairman – and thus lastly because the challenger to Prime Minister Daniel Günther for the state elections subsequent 12 months.

WELT: Mr. Kampfer, you need to rebuild the Northern SPD, which has not been significantly profitable not too long ago, and lead it again into authorities within the state elections. How is that this alleged to succeed?

Ulf Kampfer: I received a robust consequence within the main election for the highest candidate for the state elections, a transparent mandate. With the state chairmanship, I’m now taking the subsequent step in duty. At 50 %, our voter potential is just like that of the CDU. And we nonetheless have round 14 months till the state elections. That’s sufficient time to considerably strengthen the SPD and get again right into a duel state of affairs with the Union.

WELT: The Social Democrats are at present within the polls with 16 %, far behind the CDU and its high candidate Daniel Günther with 39 % – and simply forward of the AfD with 14 %. How ought to this constellation turn into a “duel situation” with the Union?

Fighter: There are three necessities: Firstly, I’ve to be convincing as an individual – as an actual various to the incumbent head of presidency. Secondly, the SPD wants a transparent election program that makes us totally different. And thirdly, Günther must defend his document within the election marketing campaign. And that gives us many factors of assault.

WELT: For instance?

Fighter: Let’s simply take the subject of schooling. High ranges of sophistication cancellations, a decline in studying efficiency in main faculties, an increasing number of college dropouts – it would not must be that method! In Hamburg, for instance, you’ll be able to clearly see how social democratic schooling coverage makes faculties higher and college students extra profitable.

WELT: And but Daniel Günther is extraordinarily common in Schleswig-Holstein. Why?

Fighter: At least that’s as a result of correct political tradition that we domesticate right here. Conflicts are typically resolved reasonably and objectively – this advantages the federal government and naturally its Prime Minister. The draw back is that this authorities has little intention, avoids troublesome points and avoids conflicts. The worth of recognition is political arbitrariness. I might be way more formidable.

WELT: And how would that be noticeable?

Fighter: In individuals’s on a regular basis lives. When it involves housing, I would like one billion euros in promotional loans per 12 months for social housing in order that the variety of social housing lastly will increase once more. We will make it simpler for municipalities to construct. We will make investments more cash in schooling. And within the well being sector, the nation will not stand idly by and watch municipal or non-profit clinics go bankrupt or be privatized.

WELT: At the federal stage, Günther is something however conflict-averse. He is at present at odds with a big a part of his get together on the problem of sugar tax and with a part of the journalists and enormous elements of the web group on the problem of age restrictions for using social media.

Fighter: These are two good examples of the “Günther method”. He is demanding one thing that’s not determined on the state stage. That might sound believable, and it additionally generates headlines – however he won’t ever must be measured by success or failure. Daniel Günther normally jumps as a tiger and lands as a mattress rug. The demand for a sugar tax did not even survive the Federal CDU’s proposal fee.

WELT: During the election marketing campaign you may be requested whether or not you’ll enter right into a coalition with the CDU and Günther after the election – if doubtful additionally as a junior associate. What do you reply?

Fighter: That a coastal coalition with the Greens and the SSW could be a a lot better various. If the bulk state of affairs seems totally different in the long run, the next applies: All democratic events should be capable of kind coalitions with one another – together with the CDU and SPD.

WELT: What is definite is that the SPD – and due to this fact you your self – could have no likelihood in Schleswig-Holstein and not using a trace of tailwind from Berlin. Why is it that the Social Democrats within the federal authorities are at present not shifting in any respect?

Fighter: Because the black-red coalition too typically looks as if a coalition of the bottom widespread denominator. Like a authorities that retains throwing just a few proposals at one another – inheritance tax, part-time life-style, working time regulation – however nonetheless cannot clear up the nation’s massive issues.

WELT: The SPD’s present proposals are that medical health insurance contributions also needs to be paid on rental earnings and capital earnings sooner or later. A good suggestion?

Fighter: What is not going to work is to fully abolish the contribution evaluation limits – then we might not have insurance coverage, however a tax. The query arises as as to whether it’s honest how we at present use the person varieties of earnings. Things are going wild in the mean time. One is absolutely paid for, the opposite in no way. The backside line is that we must broaden the contribution base, each in medical health insurance and in pension insurance coverage. There isn’t any simple answer, however the dialogue must occur now.

WELT: Another matter that the black-red coalition is at present debating in Berlin is Economics Minister Katherina Reiche’s (CDU) plan to adapt the enlargement of renewable energies extra intently to grid capacities. There are appreciable reservations about this within the SPD. You your self helped negotiate the power chapter of the Berlin coalition settlement for the SPD – what do you consider Reiche’s proposals?

Fighter: We ought to undoubtedly follow our purpose of producing eighty % of our wants from renewable power by 2030. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as a level in increasing the place the electrical energy doesn’t attain the grid and needs to be regulated at nice expense. We should pay extra consideration to system utility and combine renewable energies extra effectively and nearer to the market. In this respect, I feel it might be applicable to decelerate the enlargement just a little in some areas and speed up it elsewhere in order to not lose sight of the general purpose.

WELT: Does this additionally apply to Schleswig-Holstein?

Fighter: This must be checked out intently. We have many initiatives prepared for building within the beginning blocks, we can’t gradual them down. If we handle to make use of or retailer the electrical energy we produce right here, then we can increase wind energy as deliberate. To do that, we should even have the arrogance, for instance, to shorten the approval instances for brand spanking new large-scale shoppers comparable to knowledge processing facilities to 6 weeks. Denmark can do it. The identical applies to giant battery storage techniques or hydrogen manufacturing. Schleswig-Holstein nonetheless has appreciable potential.

WELT: What do you count on from Daniel Günther on this matter?

Fighter: That he’s clearly dedicated to reforming the electrical energy worth zone. If the uniform electrical energy bidding zone falls, electrical energy in Schleswig-Holstein would turn into cheaper and the stress would enhance to construct the brand new energy traces that we urgently want. Problem: His get together insisted within the coalition settlement that it ought to stay in a single zone.

Ulrich Exner is a political correspondent for WELT and reviews primarily from the northern German states.