parties
Leftists apply to form groups in the Bundestag
Dietmar Bartsch: “We remain the left-wing opposition.” photo
© Melissa Erichsen/dpa
The days of the left-wing faction in the Bundestag are numbered. After the break with Sahra Wagenknecht and followers, she must be wound up. The MPs from both camps now want to form so-called groups.
The members of the left-wing faction in After the planned dissolution of their parliamentary group next Wednesday, the Bundestag wants to continue doing politics together as a so-called group. A corresponding application should be submitted immediately to the Bundestag Presidium, said parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch in Berlin.
A Bundestag resolution is required to approve a group and determine its rights. Compared to a faction, a group has fewer parliamentary rights, for example when making requests to the government, as Bartsch confirmed, and it receives less financial support from the state treasury. The details will be specified in the relevant Bundestag resolution. Until then, it is also unclear where the MPs from the Left will sit in the plenary hall in the future.
The left-wing faction decided to disband on December 6th in mid-November. The background is the departure of the former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht and nine other MPs from the party. Without them, the parliamentary group will lose its minimum size of 37 MPs and will have to be liquidated.
Wagenknecht and her colleagues also strive for group status. A spokeswoman said when asked when the application would be submitted that it would be decided in the coming weeks. The 54-year-old wants to found a new party in January.
Bartsch: “It goes down quickly, going uphill is much more difficult”
Bartsch appeared combative. We will continue to be the voice for social justice in the Bundestag. “We remain the left opposition.” The aim is to return to parliament in parliamentary group size in the 2025 federal election. “It’s hard work. Going downhill is quick, but going uphill is much more difficult.” According to his own statements, the previous parliamentary group leader will also be chairman of the planned Bundestag group of the Left. He said he was unanimously asked to do so by the 28 members of the Noch parliamentary group.
With the dissolution of the group, 108 employees, such as office workers, will also lose their jobs. Bartsch could not say how many of them could be taken over. This will also depend on how much money the future group will have available. First of all, everyone would be laid off after December 6th. “We will probably keep the people who are extremely important to us, in terms of content and politics, in the new group.”