Overview
- Timon Gremmels will not seek re-election at the 27 September district party congress in Baunatal, ending six years as chair.
- The federal SPD appointed him co-chair of the party’s Culture Forum with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern culture minister Bettina Martin, and he remains Hesse’s minister for science and culture.
- Marburg mayor and current deputy chair Thomas Spies is the only announced candidate to lead the district, which HNA reports would put a non–North Hesse politician at the top for the first time.
- Local coverage cites internal criticism and factional tension, while Gremmels denies major rifts and says he will stay visibly engaged in his home region as a state minister.
- Veteran board members Martina Werner and Edgar Franke are also exiting, the executive board is set to expand from four to seven seats, and nominees include Finja Müller, Philipp Rottwilm, Marcel Brückmann, Esther Dilcher, Latif Hamamiyeh Al-Homssi and Tanja Hartdegen.