Course criticism: Federal managing director of the Left Party resigns

Resignation from the Left party leadership: Tobias Bank says goodbye to his position as managing director. He obviously doesn’t like the party’s new direction.

Apparently the new profile of the Left is not what the party’s federal managing director, Tobias Bank, wanted. The 38-year-old has drawn the conclusion and no longer wants to be the federal manager of his party. In a letter to the members of the Left, the ARD capital studio available, he gives clear reasons for his resignation:

“The current course of concentrating almost everything on movements outside parliaments and on urban milieus and apparently no longer seeing election results as a measure of political success is not my understanding of politics. Under these conditions, I don’t want to continue to be a fig leaf for a supposed pluralism of opinions within the party “That’s why I can’t continue to take responsibility for the challenges ahead for The Left.”

Reconciliation between party wings failed?

Bank was elected federal managing director of the Left at the Erfurt party conference in 2022. His election back then was a surprise because he was not the preferred candidate of party leaders Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan.

It was already clear back then: Bank does not belong to any political camp. Bank wanted to balance the disputes within the party between different wings and wanted to take a pragmatic course. He probably failed with that.

Last year, Bank spoke at an event entitled “Can the Left Still Be Saved?” took over the moderation. Party celebrities such as Gregor Gysi, Dietmar Bartsch and Gesine Lötzsch were there. There were also many party members in the audience who no longer felt represented by the current course of the party leadership and who accused their party of not caring enough about the normal population, especially in the East. Bank tried to bridge the substantive gaps that were emerging. He didn’t succeed.

Shift to the left with party leader Wissler

Since Sahra Wagenknecht’s departure and a surprisingly unanimous Left party conference in Augsburg in November, party leader Wissler has set the party on course.

The Left has moved further to the left, no longer sees itself as just a party of social justice, but also emphasizes the rights of queer people, climate protection and open borders for refugees.

Resignation, but not an exit

Tobias Bank would actually now be responsible for the Left’s campaign strategy for the European elections and the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg. He won’t do that anymore. He writes that he hopes that “The Left is not lost and that the next federal party conference can correct course.” Bank does not want to leave the party, but no longer wants to take on a position in the left.

A duo should follow

There should initially be an interim solution for his successor in the party’s federal management. The Left leadership around Wissler and Schirdewan proposed the deputy party leaders Katina Schubert and Ates Gürpinar to the party executive committee.

“We are grateful that Katina Schubert and Ates Gürpinar are willing to take over the federal management in this situation on an interim basis,” said a statement from the party leadership. “Both were already state managing directors and state chairmen, Katina Schubert in Berlin, Ates Gürpinar in Bavaria, both know the party well, have a lot of organizational political experience, and have organized and led successful election campaigns.”