The Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag will be dissolved on December 6th. The MPs decided this at their meeting on Tuesday. “This day is no reason to celebrate,” said chairman Dietmar Bartsch before the meeting began. The end of the group was “of course a defeat, also for me personally”.
According to the Bundestag administration, a parliamentary group in the German Bundestag has not dissolved during an ongoing legislative period since the 1960s. On the Left, this step came after a total of ten MPs led by former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht declared their resignation from the party a good three weeks ago and announced that they wanted to found a new party called the “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht”. The remaining 28 Bundestag members of the Left are not enough to maintain parliamentary group status – this would require at least 37 members in the current legislative period.
The decision to dissolve itself was preceded by weeks of struggle over the bureaucratic procedure. When presenting the plans for her new party, Wagenknecht emphasized that she and her colleagues had submitted applications in order to be able to remain as members of the parliamentary group despite leaving the party. Wagenknecht combined this with the point that they wanted to give the parliamentary group employees who will lose their jobs after the Left Party loses their parliamentary group status the longest possible time to prepare for the career change. This construction would have been possible at most until the new party was formally founded, which Wagenknecht had announced for January. After that, the faction would have to be dissolved in any case.
However, it was quickly heard from the remaining left that they wanted to keep the time of the joint faction with the people who were internally ridiculed as “waggoners” as short as possible. The dissolution date that has now been decided was reportedly chosen to ensure employment for the group employees beyond Christmas.
The end of the group is not “the end of the left,” says Bartsch
This also avoids having to formally deal with the applications of the MPs who have resigned to remain in the group. There were different opinions within the left about how this would have been necessary – there is no precedent. But one thing is clear: the idea that the Wagenknecht people could appear before the parliamentary group individually to explain their reasons for leaving the party in epic detail was a nightmare idea for the remaining left.
Instead, the left is now clearly trying to present the departures of Wagenknecht and her allies as a new beginning. “There has to be an end to the unspeakable self-preoccupation,” said Bartsch. The end of the group is “by no means the end of the left”.
It is unclear to what extent the party will actually succeed in sending the desired signals of unity. There has been an open conflict between the party leadership and the parliamentary group leadership for a long time, even beyond the debate about Sahra Wagenknecht. It is unclear whether the remaining 28 Left MPs want to work together in one group in the Bundestag in the future or whether they will split into two or more. In addition, the Left party conference is coming up in Augsburg this weekend – including debate on an open stage.