Bartsch in the ARD summer interview: A touch of Robin Hood

Take from the rich, give to the poor – that is the favorite slogan of Left Party top candidate Bartsch. That ARD summer interview but has also shown that he does not want to take some of what is in the election manifesto so seriously.

Rain fronts over Berlin make it difficult. The first attempt at the summer interview has to be canceled, the top candidate of the Left Party is in the rain. But this is – if you observe Dietmar Bartsch – only actually the case, not in a figurative sense. Bartsch is calm. And that both in the wet and a little later in the studio, after the broadcast control room had to be relocated.

The top candidate appears relaxed and optimistic. Six percent in current surveys do not seem to bother Bartsch. “The chicks will be counted in autumn,” says Bartsch, apparently wanting to announce that the left-wing election campaign will be a great success before the general election.

Bartsch loosens the party line

Instead, he sometimes draws his own line on politically tricky questions and loosens the party line. Almost incidentally, Bartsch adds to his party’s rigorous line that the Bundeswehr must be withdrawn from all missions abroad. In Cyprus, for example, that doesn’t apply, says Bartsch. Instead, he prefers to say that a world without armies is a dream and a “wonderful utopia”. That sounds so vague that it cannot be taken seriously as a political demand.

Once again, the impression arises that someone is speaking who knows what compromises are and will be necessary if the left wants to be a possible coalition partner. Bartsch had previously said that his party would not take part in coalition talks until NATO is abolished. A real through and through.

Balancing act between the currents of the party

This is also evident when it comes to the Bundeswehr’s relief operations in the flood areas in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. Even if the election manifesto of the Left Party states that the Bundeswehr should not be used as a planned compensation for disaster control, Bartsch thinks it is good that it has now been done. “Correct and sensible” is what he calls the soldiers’ help in the flood area.

It is a balancing act between the left currents in his party and the advertising campaign that Bartsch absolutely wants to participate in a green-red-dark-red government. The fact that this coalition would not be possible at the moment, according to all the polls, is something that the top candidate does not want to hear.

Tax relief for many employees

What Bartsch, on the other hand, focuses on is the eligibility of the left for large population groups. Many people are supposed to get tax relief, even companies. “We’re not hammered,” says Bartsch. “It is important to companies that we have jobs that are properly paid.”

Bartsch seems happiest when you ask him how the Left Party intends to counter-finance all the campaign gifts it promises – for example a minimum wage of 13 euros, significantly more vacation for everyone, free local public transport. Then he explains his new beautiful world, in which it will be much more uncomfortable for billionaires and millionaires. He wants to take from them in order to give to many others. He does not accept that a number of companies could then leave Germany.

The contrast between those who earn billions and children in poverty, that is the topic with which Bartsch wants to turn things around this summer of the election campaign. A breath of Robin Hood then blows around him. Wait and see whether the voters believe him, but above all his party.