Germany: SPD's Pistorius says he will not run for chancellor

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has sought to quell days of speculation about him replacing Olaf Scholz as the Social Democrat candidate for chancellor in February's snap election. 

In a video published on the SPD's social media channels late Thursday, Pistorius said he had just told the party leadership that he would not be available to stand as the party's lead candidate. 

"This is my sovereign and personal and only my decision," he said. 

"I have emphasized this over and over in recent weeks and I'm saying it again as clearly as possible: In Olaf Scholz, we have an excellent chancellor," Pistorius said. "He led a coalition that would have been challenging in normal times through possibly the biggest crisis of recent decades."

Praises support for Ukraine, increased defense spending

Pistorius quickly moved to issues that have dominated his attention during a relatively short spell of less than two years in Scholz's Cabinet, after he was parachuted in early in 2023 to replace the scandal-plagued Christine Lambrecht — namely, support for Ukraine and efforts to boost Germany's defense spending. 

"In a time when war again plagues Europe, he [Scholz] ensured that Germany is Ukraine's largest supporter in Europe," Pistorius said. "And he ensured that Germany is again a more reliable and stronger NATO alliance partner."

He said Scholz stood for "prudence" and "level-headedness," and that this was "particularly meaningful" in times of geopolitical tensions and populist threats to democracy. 

Pistorius called Scholz both "a strong chancellor" and "the right candidate."

'I didn't start this debate, didn't want it'

Pistorius, 64, said the rumors about his potential candidacy in recent weeks — with him one of comparatively few politicians from any part of the outgoing coalition with a favorable approval rating in the polls — had caused "increasing insecurity" in the party, and also "irritation among voters."

"This damages my party, which I've been a member of for 48 years now," he said. 

"I didn't start this debate, didn't want it, and never put myself in discussion for anything," he said. "It's now our collective responsibility to end this debate, for there is a lot at stake."

Pistorius then alluded to comments he made early in 2023, on becoming defense minister, when he had said his new post in the federal government — after decades in state politics — was "not a career launching pad, as it might well have been for my predecessors."

He said he had started working to earn trust from the Bundeswehr military since taking up his post, and said that there was still much to do to reform and improve the capabilities of Germany's military. 

"As defense minister, I am not yet finished with what I want to achieve, with what must be achieved for our own safety," Pistorius said. "I am looking forward to second term in [this] office."

SPD well adrift of rival Christian Democrats in polls

At least based on current opinion polls, the chances of the next German chancellor hailing from the center-left Social Democrats seems highly remote in any case. 

Most surveys put their center-right rivals, the Christian Democrats, at more than double the SPD's level of support. Infratest dimap's latest tally published earlier on Thursday had the CDU/CSU at 33%, and the SPD in a fight for third place with the Greens at 14%.

The party, which has not finished outside the top two in any postwar election in Germany, is around 5 percentage points adrift of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany. 

All three parties of the now-collapsed coalition have, however, voiced hope that maybe all bets could be off in a snap election campaign, now that they can stop making difficult compromises in the hopes of keeping the alliance together.

Nevertheless, a repeat of the late surge the SPD managed in the 2021 federal election — ironically under Scholz's staid and sober style of leadership that some in the party now seem keen to discard — is currently but a twinkle in only the most optimistic SPD member's eye.

What might prove more likely, as Pistorius' comments on Thursday about hoping for another term as defense minister alluded to, is that the SPD ends up as a junior coalition partner in Germany's next government. 

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Edited by: Kieran Burke