Social Democrats Turn to New Leader After Losing Election
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BONN — The German Social Democrats, in disarray after this month’s crushing election defeat, Monday turned to a clean-cut state premier, Bjorn Engholm of Schleswig-Holstein, for new leadership.
Engholm told reporters after an SPD ruling council meeting that he will run for chairman at a party congress in May when Hans-Jochen Vogel steps down from the job.
Engholm, 51, emerged as the only feasible candidate for the job after Oskar Lafontaine, election loser to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, turned it down last week.
The party won only 33.5% of the vote in the Dec. 2 parliamentary poll, its worst result since 1957.
A mild-mannered, pipe-smoking intellectual with a suave speaking style, Engholm is seen as a moderate who could unite the left and right wings of the party.
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