SPD Baden‑Württemberg picks Cademartori and Mesarosch as new dual leadership after worst‑ever election result

Three months after the SPD in Baden‑Württemberg slumped to its lowest ever share of the vote in a state election, the party has chosen a new leadership tandem. A membership ballot of the roughly 30,000‑strong state association put forward the Mannheim Bundestag member Isabel Cademartori (38) and the former Bundestag member Robin Mesarosch (35) from Sigmaringen as the preferred candidates.

“Generationenwechsel.”

The vote and the winning tandem

The duo secured 56.52 percent of the valid votes, the electoral board announced in Stuttgart. The only other named challenger, Landtag deputy Dorothea Kliche‑Behnke, received 24.5 percent. Also standing was Carsten Lotz, the chair of the Gomaringen local branch, who was considered an outsider. The required quorum of 20 percent of the membership was reached, a party spokesperson confirmed.

From election debacle to new beginning

At the last Landtag election the SPD won only 5.5 percent of the vote, its worst performance ever in the south‑west. On election night the lead candidate and then party and parliamentary group leader Andreas Stoch announced his resignation. He was succeeded at the head of the Landtag group by the former general secretary Sascha Binder. The result triggered the membership consultation, which the state executive declared politically binding.

Party congress in Ulm will formalise the choice

The state executive board will now propose Cademartori and Mesarosch to the party congress that meets on Friday and Saturday in Ulm. Because the duo won an absolute majority in the member ballot, all four candidates had undertaken before the survey not to stand again if they lost. Should no candidate have reached an absolute majority, party circles had anticipated a potentially tense showdown at the congress. As it stands, the formal election is expected to confirm the membership verdict without dispute.

A dual leadership for the south‑west

The model of a shared chairmanship is not new to German Social Democracy, but for the crisis‑hit Baden‑Württemberg branch it represents an attempt at a fresh start. Cademartori, a member of the Bundestag since 2021, and Mesarosch, who served in the Bundestag from 2017 to 2021, will take over from Stoch and face the task of rebuilding a party that barely cleared the 5 percent threshold.