House of Representatives election on Sunday: The tragic figure of the election campaign

Lower Saxony's Justice Minister Kathrin Wahlmann (SPD) claims not to have known that the raids by the Hanover public prosecutor's office were directed against her party colleague Steffen Krach, the SPD's top candidate in the House of Representatives election. On the eve of the searches last week, she was only told that it was a “SPD candidate” in the upcoming elections.

The public prosecutor's office is investigating Krach on suspicion of taking advantage. This involves a 9,900 euro donation to the Berlin SPD at the end of 2025. The background is the decision about the new use of a clinic site in Lehrte, almost 20 kilometers east of Hanover. Krach was involved as regional president there.

Die Zeitung Die Welt berichtete jüngst von einem 24-seitigen Aufsichtsratsprotokoll, das Krachs Darstellung stützen würde, die er bei einer Pressekonferenz am Tag nach den Durchsuchungen gab. Demnach hatte Krach in einer Sitzung des Gremiums nicht Einfluss genommen, sondern sich der Stimme enthalten. That's how Krach himself portrayed it. In der Pressekonferenz konnte er zudem belegen, dass die Berliner SPD die Parteispende zeitnah zurücküberwiesen hatte.

If the allegations turn out to be unfounded, Krach would ultimately become a tragic figure in the Berlin election. Because before the judiciary, his own party has already made his election campaign more difficult. It started with the Social Democrats using various methods to force the board duo who had brought Krach back to Berlin to resign - Martin Hikel and Nicola Böcker-Giannini no longer play a role in the Berlin SPD.

And at the state party conference in May there were long discussions about two of Krach's central demands, such as a ban on cell phones in primary schools. The resistance within the party was even stronger for the Olympic application supported by Krach: around one in three delegates voted to delete the Olympic topic from the draft election program.

It cannot be ruled out that key forces in the party have already decided on noise as a scapegoat if the SPD performs worse than ever in a House of Representatives election in Berlin on Sunday. It wouldn't be a classic defeat or vote-out that leads to opposition: regardless of whether the Left Party or the CDU has the say in the Red City Hall in the future, the SPD will, as before, co-govern as a junior partner. Without them, neither the Left Alliance nor the Kenya Coalition is sufficient.