analysis
Status: 01/12/2023 1:35 p.m
Get together, carry on – somehow: When the Left Party now meets for the parliamentary group retreat in Leipzig, it shouldn’t be about arguments or divisions. But everyone has to come to that.
Economic policy, women’s plenum, strategy debate: The topics for the parliamentary group retreat of the left sound like political routine. Indications of a crisis in the parliamentary group or the party: none.
Group leader Dietmar Bartsch is satisfied anyway. He believes his parliamentary group is one of the most diligent in the Bundestag, making inquiries and motions and working on committees. However, she fails to make that clear. That’s no wonder: in public perception, the left gives the impression of a divided party.
limits of ability
There is a rift through the parliamentary group and party. And everyone knows it. Even the ability mentioned by Bartsch quickly reaches its limits. Example: At the last parliamentary group retreat in 2022, not even half of the MPs were present. The foreign politicians were almost entirely absent. A strange signal when a war is raging in Europe. Because there are differences of opinion.
While faction members like Sahra Wagenknecht primarily criticize the West and defend Russia until shortly before the outbreak of war, the official party line has long since changed.
Wagenknecht and Co. are rare
In the Bundestag, too, there are difficulties in filling at least the first rows of what is already the smallest parliamentary group. For months it was above all Wagenknecht and their allies who made themselves scarce. If you ask parliamentary group leader Bartsch about the absent MPs and ask why he doesn’t bang his fist on the table, he says: “It doesn’t make sense. It hurts your fist and the table stays the way it is.” In addition, the faction as a whole is actually quite productive.
Or is it a split?
In the parliamentary group and in the party, there are primarily two opposing groups: Wagenknecht and their allies on the one hand, and the so-called Progressive Left and their supporters on the other. The danger of a split has long threatened. Wagenknecht denies the credibility of the left and does not rule out founding your own party.
Twenty years ago, Gesine Lötzsch experienced what it was like when the party had only two MPs in the Bundestag. She warns of a split, because “there is a risk that there will be nothing after that. Those who are thinking about starting something of their own are also aware of this.”
expulsion? Really now?
So it seems that Wagenknecht and her allies have been holding back lately, as if they don’t want to feed the split rumors anymore. Perhaps a consequence of headwinds within the party.
At a meeting in December, the “Progressive Left” demanded that people who do not represent the party line should in principle no longer speak for the left. In doing so, the “Progressive Left” attempted to put Wagenknecht’s chair in front of the door. Someone close to her says: “The most popular politician in the party is threatened with being thrown out – and with it many members. That is unthinkable in any other party.”
But in the Left Party it is. Three MPs from the parliamentary group are part of the “Progressive Left”: Caren Lay, Cornelia Möhring, Martina Renner. It is important that no one in the party takes positions that play into the hands of the political right, Renner said ARD Capital Studio. This is also directed against Wagenknecht, whose populist tones are also well received by AfD supporters.
He has known the dispute in his party for decades: Gregor Gysi
Image: AFP
Tired appeals
Group leader Amira Mohamed Ali appealed to MPs from all sides to pull themselves together. After all, you have a duty to use your political weight for those who are disadvantaged in this society. Mohamed Ali is close to Wagenknecht and mostly defends their positions.
It’s different with Gregor Gysi. However, he sees a historical responsibility for himself as for Wagenknecht to “somehow keep the shop together”. He conducts behind-the-scenes talks. So far, no one has spoken up to support him.
Co-group leader Bartsch appeals to the responsibility of the MPs, especially for left-wing voters and those who could become one, in the Bundestag. He also avoids open criticism of Wagenknecht.
endure each other
Some in the faction still hope that one day we can get along peacefully. Others say nothing at all. Still others expect a spin-off by the end of the year.
Gysi has known the quarrels for decades. He says you have to put up with each other. Then it might work. But first everyone has to be there. Wagenknecht can only be connected via video.