New general secretary of Germany's SPD stresses government successes

The new acting general secretary of Germany's governing Social Democrats, Matthias Miersch, wants his party to stick more closely to its own "priorities" again to make it stand out more from its coalition partners and the conservative opposition.

Miersch was appointed the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) acting general secretary on Monday, after his predecessor Kevin Kühnert resigned for health reasons.

The SPD of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in coalition with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), but the centre-left alliance has been plagued by in-fighting and rumours that it is unlikely to survive until national elections in September 2025 come up time and again.

"I am under the impression that we have been the ones who have held this coalition together in many places in recent years," Miersch told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio on Wednesday.

"We also need to show time and again what our priorities and successes are in this government."

Looking ahead to the coming months, Miersch said it was important for the SPD to position itself programmatically in a way that "clearly" differentiates it from the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU).

"A state that is capable of acting and does not abandon the individual when it comes to care, when it comes to good daycare facilities, when it comes to infrastructure" was central to him, said Miersch.