parties
Left boss Wissler calls for group cohesion
The left party leader Janine Wissler at the ARD summer interview. photo
© Paul Zinken/dpa
The dispute over direction on the left has been smoldering for some time. The difficult situation has not exactly improved with Bartsch’s withdrawal. Party leader Wissler appeals to the MPs.
After the announced withdrawal of Dietmar Bartsch from the head of the left parliamentary group, the party leader Janine Wissler called on the MPs to unite. “This faction should stay together,” she said in ARD’s “Morgenmagazin”.
“We should concentrate on being the political alternative to the traffic light, on making alternative proposals, and not on the fact that there are any tendencies to build another competing party.”
The left chairwoman was alluding to the dispute over the direction of MP Sahra Wagenknecht, who wants to decide by the end of the year whether to found her own party. In this case, the left and its parliamentary group are threatened with a split. It is expected that other MPs would leave the left along with Wagenknecht. With fewer than 37 mandates in the Bundestag, this would lose its parliamentary group status and thus influence, money and posts.
Wissler: Bartsch remains an “asset”
Wissler reminded the 39 MPs that they had all been elected on the lists of the left and on the basis of the left election program. One should not read anything into Bartsch’s announced withdrawal. “Dietmar Bartsch himself made it clear that he will continue to fight for a strong and united left. And he will no longer be in the front row. But he will certainly remain an asset in the parliamentary group.”
The 65-year-old Bartsch announced on Wednesday that he would not run again in the September 4 board election. He made that decision a long time ago. Before him, his co-chairman Amira Mohamed Ali had already announced her withdrawal. The background is the directional dispute over Wagenknecht.
She didn’t want to hide the fact that “the situation is difficult for the left right now,” said Wissler. “But I also believe that we have a stable foundation.” The left must now stop self-occupation and make it clear that they are dealing with political opponents and with the policies of the traffic light government.