This appointment is a scandal! A big one, not a small one. Nam Duy Nguyen (Left Party) did not trigger it, he just pointed it out – and cleverly used it to his advantage. Nguyen, whose parents immigrated from Vietnam, will be the only non-white member of parliament in Saxony’s parliament. The 28-year-old claims: not only the only one, the first ever. Much has been written recently about the fact that not all AfD voters in Saxony are themselves right-wing extremists. That their interests must be listened to and represented. The debate about who represents people with a migration background is much quieter.
“People like me don’t run for office in Saxony.” That’s the first sentence Nguyen says in his campaign ad. People with a migration background drove past him and then drove back to him when they recognized Nguyen while he was putting up posters, he says on the phone. Because they wanted to encourage him. “I think I’ve become a certain identification figure.”
But the issue hardly played a role at the door. “The focus very quickly became on social issues.” And the German-Vietnamese and his team rang many doorbells. All 50,000 in his Leipzig constituency, to be precise. A magic thumb is not enough. Nguyen and his 300 (!) supporters say they have had more than 14,000 conversations with citizens. An unprecedented mobilization and a rather surprising success story. Because at his very first attempt the 28-year-old won a direct mandate for the Left in eastern Leipzig; no candidate in the whole city received more first votes. Alongside Nguyen, Juliane Nagel also won a direct mandate for the Left in Leipzig. With her two votes, the so-called basic mandate clause comes into effect in Saxony: The Left managed to enter the state parliament again, although it only received 4.5 percent of the second votes.
The Left was no longer an anti-establishment party, says the young politician
Nguyen is not afraid to criticize his party’s policies. The Left has lost “an enormous amount of trust” among people because it was no longer an anti-establishment party. “I would like to get back to that,” he says. Nguyen has evidently found the right path. In the discussions, citizens criticized three things in particular: the poor local transport, the high rents and the expensive weekly shopping. Issues that other parties ignored. Nguyen is familiar with these problems. He grew up in Dresden, in just eleven square meters. His father initially worked in the steel industry, but now he runs a newspaper kiosk with Nguyen’s mother. He has known since kindergarten that he has to defend himself against racism; his mother advised him to hit back twice as hard if someone hit him. Money was so tight that Nguyen voluntarily canceled his school meals in the 6th grade. “So as not to burden my parents any more.”
A good 15 years later, there was no money for the election campaign. But the campaign platform Campact stepped in. It offered campaign support to Nguyen, Nagel and two Greens. It wanted to support four promising candidates in order to limit the influence of the AfD: with targeted advertising, election appeals by mail – and with money. Nguyen accepted the 25,000 euros offered, the only one, but also the only one who did not yet have a mandate with which to finance an office and campaign equipment. His election campaign was nevertheless criticized. The Green Bundestag member Paula Piechotta accused him of not being forthcoming with his views on the doorstep. Nguyen denies this. “I thought it was a shame that the Greens were so focused on me personally.”
The Left Party only managed to get back into parliament thanks to the direct mandates of Nagel and Nguyen. But he still doesn’t want to have saved his party. Germany needs a strong Left Party, he says. “And I don’t really see that reflected when people only talk about the Left Party’s savior.” His entry into parliament is only the beginning of the Left Party’s renewal.