After the shock resignation announcements by SPD Berlin chair Nicola Böcker-Giannini and Martin Hikel, the two politicians wanted to comment on their move at a press conference on Monday (14.00). It is also about how the party can quickly emerge from its serious crisis ten months before the Berlin House of Representatives elections in September 2026.
Böcker-Giannini and Hikel announced on Sunday that they would step down at the end of the month. The duo, who have only been at the top of the SPD since 2024, drew conclusions from the lack of support in the party, which is currently the SPD’s junior partner in Berlin. CDU arranged together.
Steffen Krach should fix that
State executive council SPD unanimously proposed the top candidate for the 2026 Berlin elections, Steffen Krach, currently regional president of the Hanover region, as the new party leader. He will be elected at the party conference in March, where the Berlin SPD really just wants to decide on its election program.
Punished by the base
Last Saturday, Böcker-Giannini did not get a place on the 2026 electoral list for the House of Representatives in her Reinickendorf district association. At the election meeting, he was clearly defeated by his rival candidate in the race for third place in the district list.
Hikel, who is mayor of Berlin-Neukölln, was re-nominated for the position two weeks ago at a local SPD election meeting with only 68.5 percent. He then surprisingly announced that he would no longer run in the 2026 election. He argued that the results did not give him enough impetus for the election.
A hopeful noise
Krach – who has now also been appointed as the new chairman – is considered a beacon of hope in SPD Berlin: a week ago at a party conference, he was unanimously named as the top candidate for the Berlin elections on 20 September 2026 and challenger to Prime Minister Kai Wegner (CDU). He had a mountain of work ahead of him. His party suddenly found itself leaderless and clearly divided. And: In recent election surveys, Berlin’s SPD ranked 13 to 16 percent, well behind the CDU and the left, and in some cases also behind the Greens and AfD.
Leading duo complains about “blockade”
In an email to some 18,000 party members on Sunday, Böcker-Giannini and Hikel wrote that they had initiated change, initiated party reforms and built bridges between the party’s wings, between the base and officials. “But in reality, our plans for change are facing increasing obstacles.”
This resulted in two “serious decisions” in the electoral structure at the district level. “Both events show that we can no longer implement the changes promised in the party committee, as well as the members’ mandate, credibly, because the actions that members want are not supported at the official level.”
The party base wants Böcker-Giannini and Hikel
Böcker-Giannini and Hikel have been more in the middle and, as party leaders, won last year’s grassroots vote against two other candidate duos. Their term of office actually lasts until June 2026. When interacting with factions around the ruling faction leader and former party chairman Raed Saleh, they are not always able to provide the desired accent. They do not have a majority in the SPD’s state executive committee, which is dominated by left-wing parties.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251124-930-331885/1
