Today's Edition
BERLIN (dpa)
Germany's troubled Social Democratic Party (SPD) launched its general election campaign on Saturday, pledging to fight its way back to the top following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz' three-party coalition government earlier in November.
"The Social Democrats are standing together, but above all, the Social Democrats are highly motivated for this election campaign," party leader Lars Klingbeil said at the opening of a campaign conference at the SPD's Berlin headquarters on Saturday.
"85 days, it's going to be a tough ride. It will challenge us," Klingbeil added, referring to what promises to be a tense race to the early parliamentary elections expected to be held on February 23.
"And if there's one thing the SPD can do, it's fight: we're a party for catching up, and we're going to show that over the next 85 days," Klingbeil said.
Around 500 constituency candidates and their teams were taking part in the event, which was dubbed the Election Victory Conference.
The incumbent and candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was due to give his first major campaign speech at the meeting.
His candidacy for chancellor still has to be confirmed at a party conference on January 11, although this is considered a formality.
Scholz's government coalition collapsed after he fired ex-finance minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) on November 6 after months of bitter disagreements over budget plans for 2025.
The FDP then withdrew from the government, reducing Scholz's coalition to a minority government with the Greens.
Scholz has announced a confidence vote in December, which is expected to pave the way for an early election in February.
Recent polls have given the centre-right opposition CDU/CSU alliance a large lead over Scholz's SPD, which has little time to make up lost ground in a turbulent year.
In European Parliament elections in June, the SPD saw their worst result in a nationwide election in more than 130 years at 13.9%.
