Germany's Left Party takes a stand against populists

Left Party chairpeople Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler  came out swinging as their party convention kicked off in the eastern city of Halle on Friday afternoon. Wissler lashed out at the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a populist party that blends left-leaning economic policies with conservative migration and pro-Russian foreign policy initiatives, which split from the split from the Left Party a year ago.

"When I hear speeches today from the BSW calling for more deportations, when they openly discuss joint motions with the [far-right] AfD and call for tougher sanctions for welfare recipients, then I can only say: It is right that we are no longer in one party," Wissler said.

"A left-wing party must never adapt to a right-wing zeitgeist," she continued to thunderous applause from the party delegates.

The Left Party's fortunes were still looking up in Germany's 2021 federal election. Although it narrowly failed to reach the 5% blocking minority, the party was nonetheless able to stay in parliament as a parliamentary group. The Left benefited from German electoral law: Because its candidates won the minimum of three constituencies, they were allowed to send 38 lawmakers to represent it in the Bundestag, which corresponded to the 4.9% share it won of the overall vote.

However, The Left suffered heavy losses in the June 2024 European elections, as well as in Germany's regional elections just three months later in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia. They then hit rock bottom with a further state election in Brandenburg on September 22nd. The day after, party chairman Martin Schirdewan admitted, "Yesterday was a bitter evening for us."

Schirdewan and Wisseler then decided not to stand for reelection as party leaders. With just 3% of the vote, the party had to depart a parliament in eastern Germany for the first time.

The Left has roots in the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which governed the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the former communist East Germany, until reunification in 1990.

After German reunification in 1990, the Left Party quickly established itself as a popular party in the former GDR. In its heyday, it achieved election results of almost 30 percent. Early on, it even entered into state governments in the east, initially under the name Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).

Failure of Left Party leadership

The Left was long seen as representing those living in economically disadvantaged areas of Germany. However, that role is now increasingly associated with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). In an interview with the German daily newspaper, Tagespiegel, prominent Left Party politician and Bundestag member, Gregor Gysi, said in early October: "We have offered the AfD room to maneuver."

Disagreement over the party's strategic course peaked in 2023. In January 2024, party renegades split off and founded BSW.

Sahra Wagenknecht targeting The Left?

Gysi claims that Wagenknecht is trying to destroy The Left. She and the BSW achieved double-digit results in all three German state elections in 2024 — at the expense of the Left Party. In the latest survey by pollster infratest-dimap, 8% of respondents said they would vote for the BSW in a federal election – and only 3% would vote for The Left.

Gysi believes this weekend's federal party convention will set the course for the future. His prediction: "We are heading for a funeral," if things carry on as before.

Two new leaders hope to turn things around: Jan van Aken, who was a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2017, and newcomer Ines Schwerdtner, who joined The Left in 2023.

In an interview with the regional newspaper Weserkurier, van Aken said: "Things can only get better." Now aged 63, he has been active in the peace movement for decades. Van Aken was involved with the environmental organization Greenpeace in the 1990s and worked as a biological weapons inspector for the United Nations (UN) from 2004 to 2006.

However, the challenge of regaining voters' trust is illustrated in a recent study by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is affiliated with the Left Party. The study shows that since 2009, the party has lost massive support in what was once its traditional milieu, especially among factory and service sector workers.

The study confirmed that the emergence of the BSW further diminished potential electoral support. However, the study's author Carsten Braband has some consolatory words for The Left: "It's not a fall into the abyss." 

The Left's current goal is to garner more than 5% of the vote and return to the Bundestag in Germany's 2025 federal election. How to achieve that will no doubt be the main topic at the federal party convention, which runs from Friday until Sunday.

This article was originally written in German.

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