parties
Left before the split – SPD is recruiting MPs
Sahra Wagenknecht (Die Linke) at a performance in Halle. photo
© Heiko Rebsch/dpa
Sahra Wagenknecht is serious: The former front woman of the Left has been at odds with her party for a long time. Now she is presenting a new alliance – with probably disastrous consequences for the left.
Division among the left: The former parliamentary group leader wants this Monday Sahra Wagenknecht presents her new alliance. A split from the Left and an end to their parliamentary group in the Bundestag is expected. The SPD welcomes possible party changers. According to a new survey, almost one in three people in Germany could imagine voting for a new Wagenknecht party.
Wagenknecht wants to present her association “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – For Reason and Justice” in Berlin. The association, which has been registered for a few weeks, is seen as a preliminary step to founding your own party. Among those scheduled to be there on Monday are the current co-chair of the left-wing faction, Amira Mohamed Ali, and MP Christian Leye. If the Left parliamentary group loses at least two of its 38 MPs, it will also lose its parliamentary group status as a result of Parliament’s rules of procedure.
Parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch is already assuming that “we will lose our parliamentary group status in January when the new party is actually founded,” as he told the “Tagesspiegel”. The jobs of 108 previous parliamentary group employees would then be threatened.
SPD: Our doors are open
The SPD expressed its willingness to accept, under certain conditions, members of the Left who want to turn their backs on their party. “Anyone who is committed to freedom, justice and solidarity and wants to make a difference in our country is welcome in the SPD. Our doors are open,” said SPD leader Lars Klingbeil to “Welt am Sonntag”.
As a representative survey by the opinion research institute Insa for “Bild am Sonntag” showed, 27 percent of people in Germany could imagine voting for a new Wagenknecht party. 55 percent of those surveyed said they did not want to vote for such a party, 18 percent did not provide any information.
So far it is not entirely clear what the expected party should stand for. Wagenknecht has positioned herself as a sharp critic of the federal government’s Ukraine policy and the energy sanctions against Russia. She is in favor of importing cheap natural gas and against overly strict climate protection policies. She also advocates limiting migration. The new party is likely to compete with the AfD, which recently made significant gains in elections and in surveys. Wagenknecht had repeatedly described the Greens as the most dangerous party.
In his own words, Wagenknecht wants to fill a political void with her project. “I feel that there are a lot of people who no longer feel represented by any party,” she said a few days ago at a reading in Halle/Saale. It is therefore time to create something new.