It’s these two names that draw so much attention to the conflict on the left – even if many top officials are happy to see it as settled. The two party icons, Sahra Wagenknecht and Gregor Gysi, exchanged sharp words about the war in Ukraine, in letters and statements, which is usually the case with these two. Gysi accused his comrade of “lack of emotion”, Wagenknecht thinks that borders on “character assassination”.
One could see this as an affair between two exalted personalities. Some top politicians on the left find the dispute almost unnecessary, as harmful for the party. But it could also be that a conflict is being fought with particular severity, which tears many on the left inward and creates new dividing lines in the party.
It’s about whether the world has changed for the left with the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin, and to what extent it is questioning attitudes that have been cultivated for years – or not. “Don’t we also have to think about ourselves, understand a certain turning point?” Gysi wrote in a letter to party friends, whom he can no longer understand. His anger was triggered by the way Sahra Wagenknecht and six other members of parliament from the Left Group dealt with the federal government’s decision to deliver weapons to Ukraine and to impose sanctions.
As is usual on the left, since the beginning of the invasion there has been a fair number of declarations, including a struggle to find the right path, even if – as some of their ranks emphasize – as the smallest opposition party they have little or nothing to decide in all of this. The official line, supported by the majority of the parliamentary group, also bears witness to this struggle. In the Bundestag debate on Sunday, parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali formulated the position. “This war is a turning point, also for us on the left,” she declared together with party leaders Janine Wissler and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow.
How far should the left follow the path of government?
They clearly condemned Putin’s actions as a war of aggression and a criminal act that was to have consequences. The left leadership spoke out in favor of sanctions “against Putin, the oligarchs and the Russian armaments industry, as well as other measures that effectively affect the Russian state leadership”. And insisted on a distinction: “We reject sanctions that affect the broad working population.” Above all, however, they did not want to follow the German government’s decision to supply arms to Ukraine and massively increase spending on the German armed forces.
This was preceded by internal debates about how far the left should follow the government’s path. The result went too far for a group of seven MPs led by Sahra Wagenknecht. They, too, condemned the Russian attack. But they also oppose economic sanctions, and their statement was heavily influenced by complaints about NATO and the US. They assessed the federal government’s plans as an “uncritical adoption of the policy pursued primarily by the United States in recent years,” for which they see a significant share of responsibility for the current situation.
Gregor Gysi found her style “terribly unemotional” in relation to the suffering of the people in Ukraine and saw his comrades trapped in old enemy images who did not want to see reality. He was outraged that they did not want any sanctions against Putin and his ilk, as was their categorical no to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
There is a longing for a uniform line
Wagenknecht reacted to the allegations – and started to counterattack. “The fact that we are now being publicly accused from within our own ranks of relativizing Putin’s war of aggression or showing a lack of empathy towards the victims cannot be surpassed in terms of lack of character,” she wrote in a statement. Anyone who wants to change the positions of the left should hold a debate instead of throwing dirt at their own people in the media.
That should be the current status of the exchange of rather undiplomatic notes, so can be heard from the parliamentary group. That doesn’t have to mean that the internal debates are over. But the top has little interest in a public dispute. After the fiasco in the federal election, there is a great longing for a unified line with only 4.9 percent. So for the time being you stick to what unites everyone. “Everything must now be done to end this war in Russia immediately and to ease the situation instead of allowing it to escalate any further,” demanded Sevim Dağdelen on Tuesday for the parliamentary group, she is chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is the only way international law and diplomacy can be restored.” Everyone involved could probably sign it.