Basic security: How the SPD leadership wants to avert a new coalition dispute

Parts of the SPD base want a member petition against the planned tightening of basic social security benefits. Deputy parliamentary group leader Dagmar Schmidt counters the criticism: Such a step would call into question the compromise between Chancellor Merz and party leader Bas.

By Georg Ismar and Roland Preuß , Berlin

Leading SPD politicians attempted on Tuesday to contain a new debate about the reform of the citizen's income, thereby averting further conflict with their coalition partners, the CDU and CSU. "I can understand the unease with the citizen's income plans. The rhetoric in the overall debate on this was often not fact-based," Dagmar Schmidt, vice-chair of the SPD parliamentary group, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung . "This is unpleasant for many in the SPD because entire sections of the population have been stigmatized in this way." However, Schmidt disagreed with the criticism on substance.