Cottbus | Woidke remains head of the Brandenburg SPD

The SPD has been back in Brandenburg for 35 years, and has governed the state for 35 years. To mark the anniversary, albeit strictly speaking about a month late, Secretary General Kurt Fischer will present a mug at the state party conference at the Cottbus Trade Fair Center on Saturday. It features the two former state premiers, Manfred Stolpe and Matthias Platzeck, as well as the once-popular Social Affairs Minister Regine Hildebrandt, and the current state premier, Dietmar Woidke.

For Woidke, the mug is a surprise. "I didn't know, and looking at the picture now, I would have prevented it," Woidke says, responding to seeing a caricature of himself. Joking aside, it's what's inside that counts.

Woidke has been head of government since 2013 and SPD state chairman since that year. He has now been elected to the party office seven times in a row. He wouldn't have known. He didn't count. He read it in the newspaper. On Saturday, the delegates confirmed him as state chairman with almost 85 percent of the votes. Velten's mayor Ines Hübner will remain his deputy. The new second deputy will be former Bundestag member Wiebke Papenbrock. Originally, no change was planned for this position. Katrin Lange was supposed to continue. But when Lange announced her resignation as Interior Minister on May 16, she said that she would of course no longer be available as deputy SPD state chairman.

The resignation stemmed from a dispute over the AfD's upgrade from a suspected case to the category of "confirmed right-wing extremist." Lange stated that she considered the path of " party bans , surveillance, repression, and exclusion" to be wrong, as it would mean losing the substantive debate with the AfD. She will not be attending the party conference in Cottbus.

Minister President Woidke said there: "The classification of the AfD as confirmed right-wing extremist is not only understandable to me, but also consistent." If the classification is confirmed by the courts – the AfD filed a lawsuit against it and the proceedings are still ongoing – then the question arises as to how the state deals with officials who are involved in a right-wing extremist party. It would also have to be examined whether this party could be banned. "But don't kid yourselves," Woidke warned his comrades. Politically and legally, an AfD ban is a long, difficult, and rocky road. Woidke knows this from the NPD ban proceedings in 2003 and 2017, both of which failed.

That's why it's the best way to make good politics, Woidke believes. "We have to show the state that we can do it." The 2029 state election is expected to coincide with a federal election, as was the case in 2009.

"I find many of the BSW's positions extremely difficult."

Dietmar Woidke, SPD Prime Minister

"I'm not satisfied with an SPD at 16.4 percent," said SPD Federal Chairman, Vice Chancellor, and Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil in a welcoming address on the party's dismal performance in the federal election in February. "The SPD belongs in first place."

In Brandenburg, the SPD won the state elections in September 2024 with 30.9 percent. Three months earlier, the polls had placed it at a meager 17 to 18 percent. The AfD seemed to be in an unassailable lead. But in the final stretch, the SPD was able to overtake it, finishing 1.7 percentage points ahead of the AfD.

In December, Woidke formed a coalition with the BSW state association, which had only been founded in May. The result is a government with ministers who average 47 years of age. Two SPD ministers are 38, two are 40, and the oldest is 48, making them younger than the three BSW ministers, who are 53, 62, and 65. At 63, Minister-President Woidke is the second-oldest member of the cabinet and the longest-serving member.

"I find many of the BSW's positions extremely difficult," Woidke admitted in Cottbus. His SPD relies on military strength, is arming the Bundeswehr, and supplying weapons to Ukraine and Israel, as Vice Chancellor Klingbeil confirmed in Cottbus. But Woidke had no other choice but to form a government in Brandenburg. On Friday, the coalition passed the controversial 2025/26 double budget in the state parliament with a majority of just one vote. A matter of course like a state budget would not have been worth a single word to Woidke at a state party conference in the past. But now it is already a reason to celebrate that there is a government and a budget. Because if there had been another dissenter besides state parliament member Sven Hornauf (BSW), the government and the budget would have been doomed.

Hornauf voted with the opposition against the double budget because teachers are supposed to teach an extra hour per week starting in February. This will save around 500 additional teachers. This is why 5,000 educators recently demonstrated at the state parliament. Minister-President Woidke publicly offered the Education and Science Union (GEW) and the Teachers' Association talks with him and Education Minister Steffen Freiberg (SPD) on Saturday: "Please, the door is open."

Later in the day, the party conference decided that spending on education should be increased again in 2027.

Brandenburg's SPD has 5,800 members, 32 state parliament members and four federal parliament members.