Rehlinger excludes SPD chair: I won't!

Rehlinger excludes SPD chair: I won't!

Anke Rehlinger, the Prime Minister of the Saarland, announced in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz” that she was not available as the successor of co-party leader Saskia Esken for the chair of the SPD. Despite the growing interest in her person in politics, Rehlinger specified with a clear “I will not” that she excludes a candidacy. This is done in the context of the current challenges of social democracy, which she cannot master from Saarbrücken, as she explained. She emphasized that she was happy to rule in her state with an absolute majority, which underpins the strength of her position.

Rehlinger, who has been in office since April 2022, is also deputy party leader of the SPD and plays a central role in the coalition negotiations between the Union and the SPD at the federal level. This is done against the background that the SPD was able to achieve a historically low result of 16.4 percent in the last federal election. Immediately after the election, Rehlinger in the ARD said that she was not available as new party leaders and wanted to concentrate her priorities on the government in Saarland, where the SPD led it to a sole government.

political career

Anke Gabriele Rehlinger was born in Wadern on April 6, 1976. She has been a member of the Saarland state parliament since 2004 and previously worked in various ministerial offices, including as a minister for business, work, energy and transport. Her political career began when she entered the SPD in 1998. Since March 2018 she has been the chair of the SPD Saarland and was the top candidate of the party in the 2017 and 2022 state elections. In the 2022 election, the SPD achieved an absolute majority, which led to the formation of a one -party government in Saarland, a special feature in the German Political Center.

Rehlinger has academic training in law and, in addition to her political career, also has a professional background as a lawyer. In 2015 it was significantly involved in the reform of inheritance tax and was also clearly positioned against a coalition with the Left Party in political discourse, making a grand coalition preferred with the CDU.

Current situation

After her election as Prime Minister on April 25, 2022 and the subsequent takeover of the chair in the Federal Council on November 1, 2024, she is now one of the few women at the head of a German state. Currently, only Anke Rehlinger and Manuela Schwesig are the incumbent prime ministers in Germany. Despite her strong position, Rehlinger remains undecided about switching to federal politics.

With her clear commitment not to strive for the party chairmanship, she has set a clear line for her future political ambitions. This decision is carefully pursued both in Saarland and at the federal level, since the SPD is in a change in upheaval and the search for new leaders is underway.