Party conference
Bartsch sharply attacks Wagenknecht’s group again
“We want a political comeback for the left,” says parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
The founding of Wagenknecht’s rival party is also in focus at the Left party conference. He blames the group for the dissolution of the Bundestag faction.
With violent attacks against Sahra Wagenknecht and her colleagues, parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch opened the second day of the federal party conference of the Left.
Bartsch once again blamed this group for the dissolution of the Left parliamentary group. The liquidation was a “huge defeat,” said Bartsch at the party conference in Augsburg.
“The responsibility for this lies first and foremost with the ten MPs who have left the party. Or rather, the nine MPs who see the tenth only as a political savior,” said Bartsch, without mentioning Wagenknecht by name. Running away when it comes to it is not his thing, the faction leader emphasized. “That’s other people’s business.”
Wagenknecht and her supporters left the Left in October to found a rival party. Because of the split, the Bundestag faction must dissolve on December 6th.
Bartsch: “We continue to fight”
Bartsch called on his comrades to get up now. “We keep fighting,” he said. “We want a political comeback for the left.” The delegates at the party conference also wanted to debate a motion on Saturday in which the ten resigned MPs would be asked to relinquish their Bundestag mandates.
The main topic of the party’s three-day meeting in Bavaria is the European elections in June 2024. Party leader Martin Schirdewan and refugee and climate activist Carola Rackete will then lead the list of candidates.
Lafontaine denies responsibility for division
Meanwhile, Oskar Lafontaine sees no responsibility for himself or his wife Sahra Wagenknecht for the split in the Left Party. When asked whether he and Wagenknecht had “fired up” the party with their criticism for years, he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”: “That is the fairy tale of those who are incapable of winning elections.” Party leadership would have the task of holding the wings together and working towards compromises. “When a party leadership, like the left, aggressively represents only the position of one wing and fights the other, then the division begins,” said Lafontaine.
It is primarily about factual issues, such as migration policy. “The left’s migration policy – open borders and the right to remain for everyone, over 1000 euros of citizen’s money for everyone who wants to come to Germany – is rejected by the vast majority of the population and only causes people to shake their heads. Anyone who represents such a wrong policy on a central issue, will be punished by the voters.”
Lafontaine said about Wagenknecht’s founding of the party: “Politically, of course, I support my wife’s decision. But as a husband, I’m not enthusiastic about it.” Political work is “incredibly strenuous and time-consuming,” and building a new party even more so.