SPD leader defends male-dominated leadership

Berlin - SPD leader and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil sees no loss of power for women despite the fact that the top leadership positions in the governing parties and factions are almost exclusively filled by men. When asked what would go wrong if, apart from their own co-chair, only men were in charge of the CDU, CSU, and SPD as party leaders, parliamentary group leaders, general secretaries, and first parliamentary managers, Klingbeil replied to the "Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland" (Sunday editions): "Saskia Esken, Bärbel Bas, Manuela Schwesig, and Anke Rehlinger would rightly not accept this statement. And neither would I, for that matter." Klingbeil pointed to the proportion of women in SPD committees: "The parliamentary group leadership has more women than men, we have two strong female state premiers, and at the party leadership, with the dual leadership and three female deputies in the executive committee, we rely on a majority of women. And that's right." He considered the SPD's cabinet, executive committee, and parliamentary group leadership to be the most important decision-making bodies. Furthermore, the SPD has sent a team of six women and three men into the government. Klingbeil stated: "Of course, we can always do better. That is also my goal." In the SPD, and for him personally, parity is a given. The decision that he, as party leader, would rise to Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister after the historic defeat in the federal election, while co-party leader Esken would neither join the cabinet nor remain SPD chairwoman, was made jointly, like all other decisions at the party leadership. It was not about "decisions against individuals," but about repositioning the SPD. With regard to Esken and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, who left the cabinet, he spoke of "weeks of great responsibility and tough decisions."