Union calls on Faeser to resign in the event of a candidacy

Nancy Faeser will apparently remain Federal Minister of the Interior for the time being, even in the event of a top SPD candidate in Hesse. Faeser had agreed on this with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported.

In the event of a defeat in the state elections in Hesse, Faeser should therefore remain in Berlin - and not go to Hesse as opposition leader. The party expects that Faeser would only move to Wiesbaden as prime minister. On Friday, the Hessian SPD chairwoman wants to explain her plans in Friedewald. It is considered certain that she will declare her top candidacy.

A spokesman for the SPD Hessen said on Monday evening when asked that it was "speculation". On Friday, however, "a wise decision" will be made. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior declined to comment on the report.

From the point of view of the Union, Faeser would have to resign from office in the event of a candidacy. "In these challenging times, when war is raging in Europe, when the security authorities have their hands full with Reich citizens, right-wing extremists and foiled terrorist attacks, it would be irresponsible to want to run the Ministry of the Interior alongside an election campaign," said the domestic policy spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm (CDU), on Tuesday. "That's why I'm asking her to resign if she becomes the lead candidate," he added.

For Faeser, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is on the one hand "a platform that she uses" to increase her awareness, said Throm. The SPD politician is also criticized by the office, “because Germany is now isolated within the European Union on migration issues”.

After the knife attack on a train in Schleswig-Holstein, Faeser asked why the perpetrator was still in Germany, although the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which is under her ministry, is responsible for the decision on the man's protection status also been “more than hypocritical”.

Politicians from the Greens and FDP also warned Faeser of a double burden. 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." Media group that the Federal Ministry of the Interior is "not a suitable campaign platform in these serious times".

Almost all parties represented in the Hessian state parliament have already declared which top personnel they will campaign for the vote on October 8th - with the exception of 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.

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. Before moving to Berlin, Faeser had been active in Hessian local and state politics since 1996 and was a member of the state parliament for 18 years.

There is a historical parallel to an approach such as that in the Faeser case. In 1995, the then CDU Interior Minister, Manfred Kanther, was the top candidate in Hesse. The CDU was the strongest force in the state elections, but Kanther was not prime minister. Red-Green retained a majority at the time. Kanther remained Minister of the Interior in Bonn, while Roland Koch took over the role of leader of the opposition in Hesse.

Almost all parties represented in the Hessian state parliament have already declared which top personnel they will use in the election campaign for the vote on October 8th - with the exception of 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 the most recent survey by Infratest Dimap from the end of October 2022, the Hesse-SPD was 22 percent, five percentage points behind the CDU, which governs with the Greens (27 percent).

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