Left party before the federal election: It flickers in the heart chamber

The left party’s top candidate, Bartsch, wants to participate in government after the general election. The polls of his party are currently very modest. The Left Party has to return to old values.

Dietmar Bartsch has booked a trip. A one-way trip without a return ticket. The goal: the government bank in the German Bundestag. The top candidate of the Left Party knows that everything is at stake. The party is fighting for political survival. This raises the bar extra high.

“We want to govern” – the message to the voter: The left is needed. In the surveys, the comrades nationwide are at six or seven percent, a long way from the self-imposed goal of becoming double-digit.

Election in Saxony-Anhalt was a blow in the neck

It flickers mainly in the heart chamber. The East threatens to break away bit by bit from the Left Party. The election in Saxony-Anhalt was a blow in the neck. Especially there, where the CDU and SPD have been able to float in front of you many times for years, even in the opposition, with good double-digit results. Not a good run-up to the federal election.

For decades they absorbed the protest in East Germany, served the displeasure and in the end perhaps fostered it for too long. Suddenly others came along who promised more. The AfD makes life difficult for the Left Party, especially in the east.

There is a lack of those responsible in the municipalities, left district administrators for example, who also implement left-wing politics. The Left Party won five direct mandates in the 2017 federal election, all in East Germany. But that’s also what they have to worry about this time. Dietmar Bartsch wants to fight for the left to stay in the Bundestag.

Bartsch has successfully avoided personnel debates

There is no getting around Bartsch in the parliamentary group or the party. His position is clear, in terms of power and political orientation. A reformer, like many from the East. He is also a networker who gives the impression that he is the spin doctor himself.

At least Bartsch is one of the most prominent faces of the party who has successfully circumvented some personnel debates. The quarrels, for example, with the ex-co-boss in the parliamentary group. The dispute over Sahra Wagenknecht finally went home with the meanwhile former party leaders Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger. Bartsch stayed – without any major political scratches.

Bartsch has to jump over his shadow

At the right time, ducking away: The top candidate of the Left Party has also mastered that. But this time Bartsch has to jump over his shadow and appear loud, roll up his sleeves and convince the voters. Talking like at the party congress in June with a sweaty shirt. Bartsch showed how things can and must work – close to people and their worries.

To make the Left back to what it always was, especially in East Germany – the advocate of the common people.