Exclusive
Status: 13.10.2022 1:45 p.m
Apparently more and more members are leaving the Left Party because they are deterred by Wagenknecht’s attitude to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. This is evident from the numbers contrasts available exclusively.
By Daniel Donath, Kaveh Kooroshy, Markus Pohl, rbb
The Left Party is currently losing massive numbers of members. Especially since Sahra Wagenknecht’s Bundestag speech on September 8, in which she accused the federal government of an “unprecedented economic war” against Russia, the number of people leaving the country has risen rapidly.
“There has never been such a high number of resignations before,” the Left Party’s press office said ARD political magazine contrasts. The party was open between September 8th and October 10th after an initial survey contrasts-Request “at least 809 members lost”.
Many resignations in connection with Wagenknecht
For comparison: In the entire first half of 2022, 1917 members left the party. Arithmetically, that was 10.6 exits per day. After Wagenknecht’s speech on September 8, a calculated 24.5 members resigned per day up to October 10. Overall, the Left Party had 57,320 members on June 30, 2022.
Bastian Lahrmann is one of the many who left the party this year. He is a municipal councilor in Grossenkneten in Lower Saxony. “We have the current war in Ukraine, and she says things like: We have to hold talks with Russia again, we have to open Nord Stream 2. With such statements from Ms. Wagenknecht, I am then approached by people who choose the base, who vote for the AfD, so actually exactly the opposite of the left. And that doesn’t match my basic values and the basic values that make up the left for me.”
This development is also being noticed in the Left Party: Most of the resignations in recent weeks were justified in connection with Sahra Wagenknecht, the office said contrasts.
In Lahrmann’s personal environment, some have left the party because of Sahra Wagenknecht in recent months: “I think it’s a shame for the left. But I can well imagine if a woman Wagenknecht leaves the party, for example, that I can rejoin there .”
Wagenknecht rules out leaving the party
Internal party voices were already being raised in the summer, calling for the Left Party and Wagenknecht to separate. At that time, Wagenknecht had accused the Greens of a “crazy war against Russia” in a tweet. Martina Renner, member of the Bundestag, then asked on Twitter: “It would be consistent for the parliamentary group to separate from Wagenknecht.” Her parliamentary colleague Anke Domscheit-Berg also described Sahra Wagenknecht’s departure as “overdue” on Twitter.
On request from contrasts Sahra Wagenknecht ruled out leaving the Left Party: “If I let myself be pushed out of the party by insults from more or less prominent members of the Left Party, I wouldn’t have been a member for years.”
The ARD political magazine Kontraste reports on the subject today at 9:45 p.m. on the first.