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fromAndreas Schmid
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Sahra Wagenknecht polarizes – also within her own party. Does the left have to fear the loss of parliamentary group status because of its former group leader?
Berlin – The Left is a big loser in the Bundestag election. Compared to 2017, the party has almost halved its result. With 4.9 percent, it even threatened to miss entry into the Bundestag. Only because the required three direct mandates were won was the left able to bypass the five percent hurdle thanks to the basic mandate clause. Within the party, the process of coming to terms with things is now beginning, and many things are the same as before the election: There is great disagreement and one seems to be more concerned with oneself than with the political challenges. The party could pay dearly for that.
Sahra Wagenknecht is the focal point of the internal party disputes. The former federal parliamentary group leader is considered the best-known current left-wing politician. Her aura continues to hover over the party headquarters in the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus. In the recent past, however, the number of party members who are critical of Wagenknecht has increased. It was once considered a “model left”.
We should not always only talk about topics that for many people bypass their existential problems in life.
Die Linke: Wagenknecht polarizes with the book “Die Self-righteous”
Wagenknecht, wife of the former leftist Oskar Lafontaine, had recently repeatedly criticized her own party. In April 2021 she published the book “The Self-Righteous”, which was widely noticed not only by the left. In the bestseller, she accuses the Left Party of alienating its core voters with gender, climate and organic food debates. Some on the left then sought Wagenknecht’s expulsion from the party because it had caused “serious damage” to the party.
In the book Wagenknecht also speaks of “life style leftists”, whose focus is “no longer social and political-economic problems, but questions of lifestyle, consumer habits and moral attitudes”, as Wagenknecht writes. You have to be careful not to only talk about topics that “for many people miss their existential problems in life”, added the 52-year-old after the election debacle of her party. Wagenknecht’s demand: “We shouldn’t go on like this.” She is to a certain extent responsible for the outwardly observable unrest. Because the statements appeared almost at the same time as the first meeting of the new parliamentary group. Wagenknecht not only stayed away from her, but also opposed the party leadership’s requirement to withhold public criticism immediately after the election.
Sahra Wagenknecht: The size of the party divides the left
Wagenknecht has not only made friends with her offensive and party-critical course. The native Thuringian with Iranian roots used to be considered ultra-left because of her communist perspective. Now it is being tackled precisely by this wing of the party. It is said that she harms the party with her criticism and turns away from left-wing interests, for example when she expresses herself critical of gender. The fact that Wagenknecht himself complains about the turning away of left interests shows the turmoil within the Left Party. There seems to be a disagreement about orientation and party course. “How left do you want to be?” Seems a question. “What’s left anyway?” The other. The party cannot really cope with these – certainly not always easy – arguments before and after the federal election. “We spoke too much with different voices on many of the key issues,” said co-boss Janine Wissler in the Daily mirror.
Now Wagenknecht still enjoys a high reputation among some MPs. “I have known and appreciated Sahra Wagenknecht for many years, even if we do not always agree on the content,” Sören Pellmann tells Merkur.de. The Leipziger is one of three left-wing politicians who have secured a direct mandate. Pellmann describes Wagenknecht as “the most prominent politician on the left” with “enormous intellectual charisma far beyond the party.” Pellmann believes that the party should be positive about this. “We should definitely use that and not put it at risk.” Merkur.de also positive about Wagenknecht and announces that she will be working “constructively” with her. “Incidentally, that is what voters rightly expect from us.”
The Left: The dispute over Wagenknecht – “it is responsible for the massive turmoil in many regional associations”
So use Wagenknecht’s charisma? The former deputy party leader is once again traded with top positions such as that of the parliamentary group chairman. In a joint statement by several left-wing politicians with a migration background, it could be read that these demands were “retrograde and doomed to failure”. “Wagenknecht, their positions and their political ideas are responsible for the massive turmoil in many regional associations, for party withdrawals and the reason why many committed young people, whom we so urgently need, do not come to us.”
Amira Mohamed Ali and top candidate Dietmar Bartsch are currently chairing the parliamentary group. Both will initially continue the parliamentary group, which has shrunk to 39 MPs, as they said shortly after the federal election. Wagenknecht moved into the Bundestag via the NRW state list. The Left does not want to deal with personnel issues for the time being. Because there are different ideas within the party? “Hard internal-party struggles over the future direction of the party are foreseeable,” was the last word from the party-affiliated Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Die Linke: Will the Wagenknecht dispute cost the party its faction status?
The dispute over Sahra Wagenknecht could possibly cause considerable damage to the party. At least one MP is said to have already threatened to leave the parliamentary group because of the dispute over Wagenknecht. This is interesting in that the left would lose its parliamentary status if three MEPs resigned. Then the left would only be led as a group. It would then have less power, as is currently the case with the FDP group in the state parliament in Thuringia. A parliamentary group must provide at least five percent of the seats in the Bundestag. The new Bundestag has 735 seats.
Pellmann and Ferschl meanwhile do not believe that the Wagenknecht personnel could split the Left Party. “I am absolutely convinced that, despite all the individualism, all 39 parliamentary group members are aware of their great joint responsibility for a powerful left-wing parliamentary group,” says Pellmann. Meanwhile, party colleague Ferschl is “confident that the miserable election result will help us concentrate fully on our work.” It is more about advancing left interests in the Bundestag instead of dealing with personal details.
Party ranks Gregor Gysi also takes the current developments calmly. He does not believe in parliamentarians leaving the parliamentary group. “But if it is tried, we have to have the sovereignty to say: Then go,” said Gysi last on ZDF. “Then we will lose the faction status and get the group status.” It will certainly take some time before that happens. Meanwhile, it seems clear that Sahra Wagenknecht’s personality will continue to not only occupy the Left Party, but also divide it. The party would actually have other problems after the 4.9 percent after the federal election. (as)