After a prominent former member left and support waned, Germany’s far-left Die Linke (The Left) party is fighting for its survival more than a year before a general election, the party leadership said on Saturday.
“The Left is undoubtedly in a dangerous, existentially threatening situation,” the party leadership said in its key motion for the upcoming party congress in the eastern city of Halle in October.
In the last elections for the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, in 2021, Die Linke won just 4.9% of the vote, short of the 5% normally needed to enter the chamber. The party only managed to win seats thanks to a special rule that favored small parties that won direct mandates: with three direct mandates, it was allowed to form a parliamentary group.
After the party’s former grande dame, Sahra Wagenknecht, left and founded her own party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), Die Linke has been polling around 3% for a while. In early June, it only managed 2.7% in the European elections.
Wagenknecht decided to leave the party after repeatedly coming into conflict with others within Die Linke over her anti-immigration views.
The party’s leadership body adopted the motion on the threat to its existence in Berlin. They added that they want to lead the party on a new path and make it successful again from the party congress and with the Bundestag elections in 2025.
Party leadership committees use main motions to present proposals on central issues and the direction of the party. These are voted on at party congresses. An accepted main motion thus 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 leadership added that Die Linke has failed to effectively put the issue of the division between the top and the bottom of society on the public agenda and to understand the dissatisfaction with the ruling centre-left coalition from the left.
Together they want to turn the crisis into a turning point towards a stronger and more powerful left-wing party. To achieve this, Die Linke must strategically reorganize itself, according to the leadership.
In the motion, the party leadership explained why they believe there is an urgent need for a strong Die Linke in the areas of social, migration and foreign policy.
The party says it opposes the incorrect narrative that makes migrants scapegoats for social cuts and social insecurity.
“Instead, we point to the deeply unfair distribution between the top and the bottom and to the real causes of daily insecurity and the erosion of public services,” the researchers said.
The aim is to return to the Bundestag with a parliamentary group in the next Bundestag elections.
It is still unclear whether the two party leaders, Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan, will want to run again for the top position during the party congress.
After the poor performance in the European elections, Schirdewan hinted that he was considering resigning.
Former faction leaders Gregor Gysi and Dietmar Bartsch have called for a “structural, political and personnel renewal.”
