The former German Minister of Economy and Energy (2013 -2017), former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017-2018) and former chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany Sigmar Gabriel believes that due to the disastrous result of the European Parliament (EP) elections, the current Social Democratic leadership should reflect on its responsibility for this.
The result of the vote, according to him, is “a big slap” for the ruling coalition in Germany (GSDP, Greens, Free Democratic Party (FDP).
„With 14%, no one has an indisputable right to lead the GSDP”, Gabriel told the newspaper Tagesspiegel. “In the GSDP, everyone who is responsible, such as the elected party leadership, must now consider their responsibility: what role do they play in this disaster?“ he continued. Currently, the co-chairs of the Social Democrats are Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil.
The former chairman of the GSDP also criticized the current German government. “People are done with this government,” he said. "There needs to be a debate about what we are doing wrong in our politics. Now it is not enough to point out the circumstances, the time or the bad in the media”, he concluded.
According to exit poll data released after the polls closed by the European Parliament's press office, in the elections held on June 9, the Social Democratic Party of Germany - the party of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz - won only 13.9% of the votes and took only third place. Thus, the Social Democrats conceded second place to the right-wing party "Alternative for Germany". (AfD), for which 15.9% of voters voted. This is the party's best result at the federal level. Also, for the first time in German history, a far-right party came second in a national election. The leader, as it was five years ago, is the conservative bloc CDU/CSU with 30.2%.
For the "green" the current election is a failure. The party received just 11.9% of the vote, down about 8 percentage points from the 2019 election. Sarah Wagenknecht's Union for Reason and Justice party, whose leader opposes anti-Russian sanctions and arms supplies to Kiev, winning 6.1% of the vote. Thus, it is ahead of the FDP, which is part of the ruling coalition in Germany, for which only 5.1% of voters voted.
About 1.4 thousand candidates from 35 parties and other political associations took part in the German elections. According to preliminary data, the voter turnout in the elections is about 65%, which is higher than the result of the previous elections in 2019 (61.4%). In total, the mandates in the EP are intended for 720 deputies, 96 of whom will be from Germany.