From Hildburg Bruns
The Berlin SPD must dress warmly in the fight for the repeat election (February 12). Top candidate Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) equips all candidates with a red scarf and hat.
Above all, their chief supporter Olaf Scholz (64) – the chancellor can now wrap himself in 100% acrylic.
Winter election campaign in the Wintergarten Varieté (Potsdamer Straße). The stage belongs to the ruler, who announces her surprise number: She wants to tame the Bavarian lion Markus Söder (56) – the Prime Minister had blasphemed after the New Year’s Eve battles in the capital: “Typical Berlin. Berlin is just not really safe.”
A red scarf has a winning tradition in the Berlin SPD. He made ex-ruler Walter Momper (77) famous when the Wall fell Photo: Olaf Selchow
SPD politician Giffey wants to visit a youth club in the High Deck settlement (Neukölln) with the CSU man – a bus burned out nearby, and a retirement home almost caught fire. The ruler: “I’m curious to see what solutions come up.”
And further: “145 chaotic people don’t mean that 3.7 million people are idiots,” she counters with a view to the 145 arrests and the Söder talk of the “chaos city”.
But Chancellor Scholz also warns: “Politics must not look the other way. Of course, you should never sugarcoat everything that happens there.” In his opinion, that didn’t happen in Berlin either.
Scholz still thought it was a good thing that Giffey & Co. did not achieve the self-imposed goal of 20,000 new apartments in their first year in government (only 16,500): “If you have a shortage, you have to build. There is no other way. We’re not going to stop doing that,” he said, cheering on the effort. However, staying power is needed. That’s exactly what Giffey is for.
Applause was certain for this performance in the conservatory: only SPD candidates were seated in the audience Photo: Olaf Selchow
Like the Berlin comrades in the audience, Scholz was fully on the Franzi course. All XXL election posters on the stage showed Giffey in the center. At the kick-off to the winter election campaign, she waves from the variety stage: “I came to stay.”