faq
The Left Party and Wagenknecht are going their separate ways. This means that the Bundestag faction is on the brink of extinction. Today she wants to decide her own end. What consequences does this have for the party and parliament?
If the left-wing faction in the Bundestag decides to end itself today as planned, it will make parliamentary history – albeit differently than the party strategists may have imagined after the last federal election. No faction has dissolved during the current electoral period for decades. One example was the “German Party”, which lost a number of MPs to the Union faction in the early 1960s.
But in terms of finances or number of employees, these cases were not comparable to today’s parliamentary groups. This makes the challenge that the Left in the Bundestag now faces all the greater.
Why is the faction dissolving?
Politically, the group is already finished – no one in the ranks of the left denies that. So today it’s about formally deciding the end. Some in the group think it’s high time. Since Sahra Wagenknecht and nine other MPs left the party in October, it has been clear that the final end for the group is only a matter of time. Ultimately, Wagenknecht and her colleagues want to found their own party at the beginning of next year, by which time their group status would be lost anyway.
The reason: Only representatives of parties that do not compete with each other may belong to the same faction. This emerges from the Bundestag’s rules of procedure. In addition, a parliamentary group must have at least five percent of all MPs. Given the current size of the Bundestag, that is 37 elected representatives. Without Wagenknecht and her supporters, only 28 members of the Left remain: too few to save the group’s status.
What are the consequences of the dissolution?
To be specific: the parliamentary group’s office will be dissolved. Rooms and computers go back to the Bundestag. The group’s employees are particularly affected – their employment relationship will be terminated as a result of the dissolution. So far, the Left employs more than 100 people in the Bundestag.
Politically, the end means less money and less influence in parliament for the group. Last year, the Left in the Bundestag received around 11.5 million euros in state funding. The group spent most of it on staff.
What’s next for the Left in the Bundestag?
If the parliamentary group has dissolved, individual MPs remain. Nevertheless, there is an opportunity for the Left to continue to get involved under the Bundestag dome, namely by forming a group. In Berlin it is assumed that both the MPs from the Left and the people around Wagenknecht will try this.
However, a group can only be formed if the Bundestag agrees. Parliament already has experience with groups. After the fall of the Wall, the PDS, for example, had this status for a time – the predecessor party of the Left.
Which Possibilities of influence has a group?
That depends on what the future group agrees with the factions of the other parties. In the past, groups had similar rights to factions, albeit somewhat scaled down. For example, they were able to introduce draft laws and were given speaking time in the Bundestag debates depending on their size.
So far, however, groups have not been able to demand roll-call votes – a popular way for the opposition to prick the government camp. There is usually money and resources for groups, but significantly less than for factions.
How does the resolution affect the Parliamentary operations out of?
The technical work takes place primarily in the committees, not in the plenary sessions of the Bundestag. In the past, groups have also been represented on the committees. The problem: Normally it is decided at the beginning of an electoral period who will send how many representatives to the specialist committees. However, the Left faction is disintegrating in the current electoral period. Whether and how the seats in the committees will be redistributed – that is a question that the Bundestag will have to decide on soon.