The SPD working group on Migration and Diversity objects to how the party’s internal Program Council has been set up. The council is supposed to lead and coordinate work on the new guiding programme, yet according to Orkan Özdemir, deputy chair of the group, it contains hardly any expertise in diversity and migration. “It is almost embarrassing that the federal SPD, in 2026, appoints a Program Council that scarcely embeds migration and diversity expertise” Özdemir told “Spiegel”. He added that the council also lacks voices that can position structural discrimination from lived experience.
Özdemir, who sits in Berlin’s state parliament, wonders how such an important issue could be excluded at all. “It sends the wrong signal to members: that a significant part of them is not seen or heard” he said. He pointed out that many SPD members have their own migration histories or work in integration, and that their knowledge is crucial for everyday integration success. He argued that integrating these perspectives into the guiding programme should not be limited to indirect representation.
“Party leadership bears responsibility for the SPD’s priorities” Özdemir warned. “If integration is treated merely as a subordinate field, we underestimate the political dynamics of the coming years. Integration is already a matter of power and order. The SPD must not hand its shaping over to other parties”.
