German Social Democrats to make campaign manager new leader

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Social Democrats, the country’s main center-left party, is set to make the manager of its successful election campaign one of its leaders. The move comes amid ongoing coalition talks to anoint party candidate, Olaf Scholz as the successor to outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. Top party officials proposed on Monday that party general secretary Lars Klingbeil replace Norbert Walter-Borjans who announced that he won’t be seeking re-election as co-leader when his term expires next month. The Social Democrats have been led by the left-leaning duo of Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken since 2019. A party congress in December will have the final say on the leadership.