Back to the Future for Germany’s Socialists

With its current chairman unable to turn around an apparent leadership vacuum and dismal standings among voters, the Party of Democratic Socialism elected a new chief over the weekend -- the man who led the party throughout much of the 1990s.

Lothar Bisky garnered some 78 percent of ballots at a special party conference held over the weekend. But even with seven years experience at the party's helm behind him, he has his work cut out for him.

Some nine months after its crushing failure in German national elections, the PDS is floundering -- not only feeling the rippling effects of the polling debacle, but also split down the middle by a tedious battle between traditionalists and reformers. With only two directly elected members of parliament left in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, the PDS has lost its official party status and is barely managing to scrape recognition as a national political force.

Now that he is officially back in the driving seat, 61-year-old Bisky is determined to put an end to the in-fighting and to do as the party's motto says: steer the PDS "back to politics."

Speaking at the meeting in Berlin, he said Germany desperately needed a socialist party that was prepared to fight for greater social justice and fight off social cuts. His comments referred to the SPD-Green party coalition government’s planned changes to the labor market and health policy. The PDS is fundamentally opposed to the planned reforms, known collectively as "Agenda 2010," which would reduce the length of time that the jobless can officially draw unemployment benefits and would lead to higher premium prices for members of the country's public healthcare system.

Back to the party's roots

Bisky believes that in order to escape its political quagmire and be taken seriously as an opponent to government policies such as ‘Agenda 2010’, the PDS has to return to its roots, which stem back to 1989/90 when the PDS emerged out of the East German Communist Party, the SED.

In a passionate plea to his party members, Bisky said: “The current of social democracy is merely trickling through our party. And we, as members of parliament, officials, and prominents are all called upon to grasp this current, and to give it a face, a voice and a sense of orientation.”

Bisky officially invited one time party leader and former Berlin economics senator Gregor Gysi (photo) to help the PDS regain its status as an official party in the Bundestag. Gysi, who is perhaps Germany’s best-known PDS member, called on the party to start looking more outward than inward.

Speaking at the special session in Berlin, he said the PDS should spend less time dealing with internal affairs and focus instead on issues relevant to society. Gysi also conceded that he had contributed to the current crisis, stating that after his resignation as Berlin’s economics senator last summer, he and the party had “grown apart a little.” He said the key now was to establish why the PDS had lost its popularity, adding that the party wouldn’t stand a chance of survival until it had cemented its place in society.

But it seems unlikely that Gysi himself will play a defining role in that process as he has already told his long-time political companion, Bisky, that he would not be making a return to office.

Outgoing party leader Gabi Zimmer, who is both Bisky’s successor and predecessor, was open about her failure to pull the party together. She said she had failed in her attempts to balance the scales between the "reformers," who want active involvement in policy development, and the "traditionalists" who want the PDS to be an uncompromising protest party.

Zimmer said the PDS had no credible platform and, therefore, needed to establish a real strategy. “As far as I am concerned, the absence of such a strategic decision is the main reason for our multi-voice approach during the 2002 election campaign and for our lack of ability to deal with current conflicts with any clarity,” Zimmer said.

Looking ahead

Clarity is a staple in which Bisky firmly believes, and he made no bones as he told his party that he would tolerate neither fundamental opposition or the spreading of left-wing sectarian tendencies, particularly in the tiny PDS presence in the west. With the tone set for a new start, the struggling party is looking ahead to the European elections, where it hopes to make enough of a mark to carry it forward to the next federal ballot in 2006.