German Chancellor Scholz Kicks Off Re-Election Campaign

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday kicked off his re-election bid and prepared his party for an intensive campaign in his first major speech to around 500 party members in Berlin.

The elections in February will be necessary due to the break-up of the governing coalition.

Despite currently weak poll ratings, Scholz wants to make The Social Democrats (SPD) the strongest political force in the country again.

He recalled in his speech in the 2021 general election, when his party started the campaign from a similarly weak position and won in the end.

He also described the election on 23 February as a decision between a “backward-looking” conservatism of Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) and SPD as the "centrist force” in Germany, standing for common sense.

Scholz said he would give his all for the country and the Social Democrats in the next 85 days before the election.

He urged his party to "remember our strength: not complaining, but getting things done. Fighting together, side by side.”