SPD Baden-Württemberg: Cademartori and Mesarosch to Become New Dual Leadership

More than three months after this result, the SPD base has now elected a new leadership. As the Tagesspiegel reported, citing SWR information from party circles, Cademartori and Mesarosch prevailed clearly over their competitors in a membership ballot. Of the approximately 30,000 members eligible to vote, more than 13,000 took part in the survey, according to the SPD. Both received 56.5 percent of the valid votes.

The losing candidates are waiving a candidacy at the party convention, so that the confirmation of the new dual leadership is now a mere formality. On Friday evening, both are to be put forward for election at the state party convention in Ulm. The formal decision will be made at the party convention on Friday and Saturday in Ulm, as the election committee in Stuttgart announced.

Programmatic Ambition

Behind the duo stands a program of renewal. "Wir wollen die SPD Baden-Württemberg moderner, sichtbarer und politisch profilierter aufstellen", Cademartori and Mesarosch declared on Tuesday. Mesarosch also spoke of a "Generationenwechsel". The two are thus connecting to the base's desire for a personnel fresh start, which had been voiced after the clear election defeat.

Isabel Cademartori belongs to the pragmatic, business-friendly Seeheimer Kreis in the SPD and has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021. At 38, she brings experience from federal politics and is to work together with Mesarosch to ensure a stronger substantive profile for the state party. The two embody programmatically a broad lineup: the pragmatic wing around Cademartori and the left wing around Mesarosch.

The Candidates in Profile

Robin Mesarosch is counted as part of the left party wing and was a member of the Bundestag from 2021 to 2025 for the constituency of Zollernalb-Sigmaringen. In the federal election about a year ago, he missed re-entry into parliament. At 35, he stands for the generational change at the top of the state party that he himself described.

Finishing in the lower places were Tübingen state parliament member Dorothea Kliche-Behnke, who has been deputy SPD state chair since 2018, with 24.5 percent, and former management consultant Carsten Lotz with 16.9 percent. Both had already pledged before the survey that in the event of a defeat they would no longer stand as candidates at the party convention.

Challenges for the New Dual Leadership

The new dual leadership is taking over a party in a difficult situation. At 5.5 percent, the SPD in Baden-Württemberg is barely politically visible, and the gap to the governing parties is large. The state party convention in Ulm will therefore also be a barometer of mood for whether the base really wants to back the new leadership in repositioning the party substantively and winning back lost voters.

With Cademartori and Mesarosch, two politicians are stepping up who bring different experiences from Berlin and from the state. Cademartori stands for economic-policy pragmatism and federal-policy networking, Mesarosch for left-wing profiling and local roots in rural areas. Both must now show that they can bring this range together in a joint strategy, in order to make the SPD in the state electable again.

The coming weeks are considered the first real test for the new dual leadership. In addition to the organizational realignment, programmatic course-setting is on the agenda, with which the SPD in Baden-Württemberg wants to distinguish itself from the state government and set its own issues. If this succeeds, the change at the top could actually become a fresh start – otherwise the party faces a continuation of the decline.