TOKYO (dpa-AFX) – Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rejected calls for a complete change of the SPD party leadership as a consequence of his party’s election defeats. At the same time, he told the German Press Agency that he was not seeking further positions.
“This is a very bad election result that I did not expect and that does not do justice to the great work of Alexander Schweitzer and the committed election campaign on site,” said Pistorius in Tokyo, the first stop on the minister’s trip to Asia.
Pistorius continued: “But we don’t need a personnel discussion now either in the party or in the coalition. That would be irresponsible and I’m not available for that. Given the world situation and the challenges we face in Germany, we also face other problems. We have to concentrate on our government work.”
Lower Saxony’s SPD state parliament member Doris Schröder-Köpf has called for a complete change at the top of her party after the SPD’s election defeat in Rhineland-Palatinate. She brought up Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger and Pistorius, who was supposed to take over the office of Vice Chancellor from Lars Klingbeil, to “Spiegel”. Federal Ministers Klingbeil (Finance) and Bärbel Bas (Labour and Social Affairs) are currently co-chairs of the SPD./cn/DP/zb
