Following the resignation of a prominent former member and the subsequent loss of votes, the radical left-wing party “Die Linke” is fighting for survival just under a year before the federal election, the party leadership announced on Saturday.
“The Left is undoubtedly in a dangerous, existentially threatening situation,” says the party leadership’s main motion for the upcoming party conference in Halle in October.
In the last federal election in 2021, Die Linke received only 4.9 percent of the vote, below the 5 percent normally required to enter the chamber. The party was only able to win seats thanks to a special regulation for small parties that win direct mandates: with three direct mandates, it was allowed to form a parliamentary group.
After the departure of the party’s former grande dame, Sahra Wagenknecht, and the founding of her own party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), Die Linke has been polling at around three percent for some time. In the European elections at the beginning of June, it achieved just 2.7 percent.
Wagenknecht’s decision to leave the party came partly after repeated confrontations within the Left Party over her anti-immigration views.
The party executive board in Berlin accepted the motion to endanger its existence. It added that it wanted to lead the party on a new path and make it successful again starting with the party conference and the 2025 federal election.
In leading motions, party leadership bodies present proposals on key issues and the direction of the party. These are voted on at party conferences. An accepted leading motion therefore shows how a party as a whole positions itself on certain issues.
The party leadership admitted in its main motion: “Many who have long placed their trust in us and voted for us have the impression: you are busy with yourselves, you are not there for us. We accept this criticism.”
The party leadership added that the Left Party had failed to effectively put the issue of distribution between the top and bottom of society on the public agenda and to understand the left’s dissatisfaction with the governing center-left coalition.
Together they want to transform the crisis into a turning point towards a stronger and more powerful left-wing party. To achieve this, DIE LINKE must strategically reposition itself, say the leadership.
In the motion, the leadership explains why, in their view, a strong LEFT in social, migration and foreign policy is “urgently needed”.
The party stated that it opposed the false portrayal of migrants as scapegoats for social cuts and social insecurity.
“Instead, we point to the deeply unfair distribution between top and bottom and the real reasons for everyday insecurity, namely the erosion of public services,” they said.
The aim is to return to the Bundestag with a parliamentary group in the upcoming federal election.
It is still unclear whether the two party leaders Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan want to run again for the top post at the party conference.
After his poor performance in the European elections, Schirdewan indicated that he was considering resigning.
Former parliamentary group leaders Gregor Gysi and Dietmar Bartsch called for a “structural, political and personnel renewal”.
