So now he wants to move on again, at least temporarily. Dietmar Bartsch, who surprisingly announced in mid-August that he would be withdrawing from the parliamentary group of the Left in the Bundestag after eight years, is surprising this time with a temporary withdrawal from his resignation. “I am in office as parliamentary group leader,” said Bartsch on Tuesday on the way to the parliamentary group meeting in the Reichstag building. And according to SZ information, nothing will change for the time being.
The reason for this new volte-face on the left is very simple: so far they have simply not found a successor solution for Bartsch that can gain a majority. The new election for the parliamentary group leadership, originally scheduled for September 4th, had to be canceled at short notice due to a lack of candidates.
Nobody wants to do it – everyone is waiting
According to SZ information, Bartsch’s previous co-party leader Amira Mohamed Ali will quit on October 25th. There are many indications that she will soon join the – not yet founded – party of her close confidante Sahra Wagenknecht. Bartsch should lead the left-wing faction alone until further notice.
However, this only barely covers the leadership vacuum at the top of the smallest parliamentary group in the Bundestag. There currently seems to be no one among 38 MPs who would like to take over this task from Bartsch. This also has to do with the division that everyone expected. As soon as Wagenknecht officially announces the founding of her own political project – and with her at least one other member leaves the group – the Left would lose its group status. And then there would no longer be a need for parliamentary group leaders. The managerial positions up for grabs are anything but career springboards.
The two party leaders Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan have the right to make proposals for the leadership of the parliamentary group, but they did not make use of this at the scheduled date at the beginning of September. Behind the scenes, both have been trying to find a workable solution for weeks. This now seems to be an emergency solution: the eternal Bartsch keeps going a bit.
Will Bartsch have to run his own store?
Bartsch, 65, has been chairman of the left-wing faction since 2015, initially together with Wagenknecht, and since 2019 with Mohamed Ali. They also justified their withdrawal by saying that Wagenknecht was being bullied on the left. According to Bartsch, his original decision to relinquish his leadership position had nothing to do with the fact that the left-wing faction is on the verge of collapse. He actually decided that before the last federal election, he said in August. He apparently had no idea at the time that it would be so difficult to get rid of his job.
The current interim solution with Bartsch is based on the following idea: If this boss position will soon no longer exist, then it would be best for someone who has endured this job for a long time to do it until the bitter end. Considering that Bartsch will now probably have the task of running his own business, he sounded quite motivated on Tuesday: “Assume that the parliamentary group will continue to carry out its tasks in the Bundestag – at least as long as the parliamentary group exists.”