Left party for red-green-red: Left advances and cold shoulders

For the Left Party, the debate about a possible government alliance with the SPD and the Greens comes as it should. Do you bring her attention in the election campaign? But how serious is it really about governing?

If you ask the left-wing parliamentary group, then you are currently very happy about the “red sock campaign” by the CDU, CSU and FDP. Because for weeks the Left Party played no role at all in the election campaign. Without ruling the prospect, it flew completely under the public radar, which is also shown in the polls. Sometimes the party is one, sometimes two points above the five percent hurdle.

She is fighting for re-entry into the Bundestag, and thus for bare political survival. The discussion initiated by the political opponent about a red-green-red alliance and possible participation in government comes in very handy. It motivates its own shop and closes the ranks in the election campaign, according to the parliamentary group. Even the cross-shots that are otherwise common with the left did not materialize in the end.

The party headquarters has prepared

The top left from the party and parliamentary group join forces every morning during the election campaign to assess the current political situation, to position themselves and to react to developments. And so it is hardly surprising that the party gratefully took up the constant warnings from the CDU, CSU and FDP against a “left slide”.

Because the attempt by the conservatives and liberals to mobilize their own supporters with the “specter of the center-left government” also helps the Left Party. She now sees a government option and hopes it will give a boost to the election campaign.

In the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, as it was said last week, the content and personnel are being prepared for possible red-red-green exploratory talks. At the weekend, the strategists then spread an eight-page “immediate program” with a lot of social and climate policy via the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. A pretty well-fitting advertising brochure for a coalition with the SPD and the Greens

An “immediate program” after the election, preparations for joint discussions in their own ranks – the left wants to show that it is serious about governing. But if you ask more closely, there are gaps.

Hardly any personal contacts

The personal contacts of the left-wing leaders to the possible coalition partners have so far been extremely manageable. With the SPD chairmen, Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans, there was “a friendly meeting,” says left leader Janine Wissler. That took place after Wissler and co-leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow were elected to the party leadership at the end of February. There has been no meeting with the green top duo Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, admits top candidate Wissler.

The contacts of co-top candidate Bartsch with the potential coalition partners are apparently not much deeper. He does speak of the fact that as parliamentary group leader he speaks “comparatively often” with the finance minister and that the “fight against child poverty” connects him with Baerbock – even at joint demonstrations. But the change in policy and direction that the left wants does not seem to have been prepared well in advance, at least in terms of interpersonal relationships. Confidence-building measures would look different.

Deep rifts in foreign policy

Especially since the differences in foreign policy should not be cleared away even with half a page in the left immediate program. Not even within the left. That makes the faction a problem in a center-left alliance. Because it is at least questionable whether the government majority would always stand with the left on foreign policy issues, such as mandate extensions for the Bundeswehr.

There are real politicians like Bartsch or Hennig-Wellsow who finally want to govern after decades. But there are also those with maximum demands on NATO and the Bundeswehr. So far, the co-chairwoman Wissler was one of them. She is now promoting red-green-red, but if you listen carefully, it becomes clear to her that she is not interested in a coalition at any price.

She “is not fighting for constellations, but for political content and a strong left,” she said at the presentation of the “immediate program”. And if you look at the election manifesto and not at the short “immediate program” of the left, then the party wants to replace NATO with a so-called “collective security system with the participation of Russia”. That alone is likely to become an obstacle in possible exploratory talks.

The SPD and the Greens reacted very cautiously to the advances of the left, also in the face of such demands. At the moment it seems that both parties are more interested in a failure of the left at the five percent hurdle. Because then it might even be enough for red-green.