SPD top candidate Köpping promotes change of strategy

With an eye to next year's state elections in Saxony, Social Affairs Minister and SPD top candidate Petra Köpping has called for a change in her party's strategy. "It's important to me that people see that a coalition can work together," Köpping said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio broadcast Wednesday. The poor poll results of the traffic light government in conjunction with the two SPD election flops in Bavaria and Hesse were "worrying."

The federal government had "implemented good programs" but had not communicated them well enough. "It is important that we can step out and present our results." Results, he said, are often compromises. These need to be made clear and communicated more clearly to citizens as a whole, she said. Köpping said she wanted to offer people good deals and prospects so that they would learn to trust again.

Köpping sees the fact that the SPD already has government responsibility - unlike in Bavaria and Hesse - as an advantage. She is already "a familiar face" and as Minister of Health she knows "that you also have to face the wind when there is headwind."

A few weeks ago it became known that Köpping is to lead the SPD as the top candidate in the state elections in just under a year. Four years ago, the Social Democrats in the Free State with 7.7 percent of the secondary votes had achieved their worst result to date. In a poll conducted by the Insa polling institute at the end of August, they came in at 7 percent. Now the Social Democrats want to get back into clear double digits. According to a spokesman, the party's state association currently has about 4,500 members.