BERLIN – A top official with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party announced his resignation on Monday, citing health problems, a year before an election in which the center-left Social Democrats face an uphill struggle,
Kevin Kühnert, 35, has been the Social Democrats' general secretary — the party official responsible for day-to-day political strategy — since late 2021.
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Scholz led the party to a narrow win in that year's national election. But its poll ratings have dropped sharply since then as the chancellor's coalition with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats has developed a reputation for constant infighting.
Kühnert is a former head of the party's youth organization and was a leader of an unsuccessful campaign in early 2018 against the Social Democrats joining conservative then Chancellor Angela Merkel's final coalition government.
In a letter to party members shared on his Instagram feed Monday, Kühnert noted that he had said recently that everyone in the party “must and will surpass themselves” in the campaign for the next national election, scheduled for September 2025.
“I myself cannot surpass myself at the moment, because unfortunately I am not healthy,” he wrote, without offering details. “For the foreseeable future, I need the energy that is necessary for my officer and an election campaign to get healthy again. So I am drawing the consequences.”
Kühnert said he had informed the party's co-leaders, Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil, that he was stepping down on Monday. There was no immediate word on his successor.
Kühnert's departure is the second significant personnel change in the governing parties in recent weeks. The two co-leaders of the Greens announced on Sept. 25 that they would step down after the latest in a string of disappointing election results. Their successors will be elected next month.
The Social Democrats finished behind the conservative opposition Union bloc and the far-right Alternative for Germany in the European Parliament election in June and also saw dismal results in two of three state elections last month in eastern Germany.