Germany: Die Linke dissolves itself as a faction in Parliament.
Despite the fact that the ten deputies who resigned asked to remain in the parliamentary group, The Left bloc decided to dissolve 6 from December. This was announced by the members of the group on Tuesday 14 In Berlin. After 18 years, the reformist space Die Linke divides again, forming two new groups that will be able to continue working with fewer rights and less budget. The scope of the new scenario.
ByCarolina Menendez Trucco
“The Bundestag faction is politically dead” its president had already announced a few days ago, Dietmar Bartsch, considering that the departure of Sahra Wagenknecht and the other nine deputies who support her would lead to being below the minimum number to form a bloc. Although today he sees it as“an opportunity for a new beginning”, For a long time there has been speculation about the departure of said figure from the conservative reformist wing.. A few weeks ago, the deputy made it public: She and other members of the parliamentary group left Die Linke and founded the association “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” to launch their new party “For Reason and Justice.”.
Starting in January it will be possible to submit membership applications and the founding of regional associations will begin. Despite the fact that the deserters offered to remain in the block to guarantee its continuity, it is the first time in 74 years of existence of the Bundestag (Chamber of Deputies) that a parliamentary group votes to self-dissolve. For the majority, the party would not have had credibility with its voters if the competing organization had remained in the same group.
“I didn't want to destroy the Left”, Wagenknecht acknowledged. However, In the end the discrepancies in content became so great that politically the time had come to put an end to a broken relationship.. Just before the European Conference of the Left Party in Augsburg, the faction decided to dissolve. As a result, two new parliamentary groups were formed, They will receive less money and less time to talk: the 28 remaining leftist deputies, on the one hand, and Wagenknecht and his supporters, for the other. The question now is how the Left can once again assume a strong role when it was never united and ended up dividing..
The consequences of the exodus
The reasons for the separation not only did they lead to the loss of parliamentary status, splitting Die Linke in two, when the fraction dies, legally more than 100 group employees will have to leave, and in a few weeks the options in the German parliament will also be limited. A group has fewer rights than a fraction and also receives less financial support from the state treasury. further, To approve it, a resolution from the Bundestag is needed. What's left after? Both sides have different ideas about how to appeal to voters., but none of them have a solid strategy.
According to recent surveys, Wagenknecht's party could obtain between a 12 and 17%. Which does not mean that the balance tips to the left.. While many analysts apparently hope that the populist leader can reduce the electoral results of the far right, reality also shows that the majority of potential voters for his party are likely to come from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD). The undecided could also play an important role after the collapse of the faction. Anyway, It should be remembered that for federal elections a simple electoral list is not enough, It is mandatory to found a party in accordance with the provisions of the law on parties with formal structures in 16 state associations. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance should collect donations to be active in the new year.
Meanwhile, The left, to sharpen his profile after the departure of the dissidents, has presented a document that focuses on climate protection and an alleged restructuring of the economy, which is more of the same: energy subsidies for companies playing a role in climate transformation. What then differentiated the dissident project?
Populist, anti-immigrant, antiambiental, antiderechos…
Beyond common issues like a higher minimum wage and higher taxes on high profits and assets, The founding manifesto of the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” in particular is distinguished by omitting most of the fundamental questions of socialism and in many sections the approach could easily come from the conservatives[1]. The doctor in economics addresses the"little man" as if exploited workers were not perceived at all as political subjects capable of fighting for their own interests. At the same time, in his enveloping speech, no matter how much you try to reach a broad sector of the population, Its content only targets the petite bourgeoisie and medium-sized companies.
Regressive positions on migration, sexual orientation, identity and climate, They are clear.“It is not enough to want to better distribute refugees and financial burdens. The numbers are too high…“Germany no longer has space.”. Apparently, nor for sexual-gender dissidents, since he also openly criticizes identity politics and multiculturalism. Any distinctive feature, in your opinion, attacks social cohesion. In energy matters, Wagenknecht also does not present an awareness policy, still believes it is necessary to lift sanctions on Moscow and return to cheap Russian gas and oil, “as energy has become more expensive and the country risks losing important industries and hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs”.
The question of peace is also central: In a recent interview for the German public broadcaster ARD, the leader, among other things, called for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but it does not elaborate on the shipment of weapons (Germany multiplied its military sales to Israel tenfold in one year), nor did he support any type of boycott of Israeli products. further, once again supports the fallacy of two states that equates oppressors and oppressed, ignoring the history of apartheid that the Palestinian people have suffered for 75 years. Definitely, ask“more diplomacy and détente in international conflicts” is not enough in the face of genocide.
The absence of a revolutionary line
You don't have to look far to find symbols in the founding period of Die Linke that make clear the drama of the current crisis. In June 2007 The new party was formed at the Estrel hotel in Berlin. The delegates of the former PDS[2] and the then new WASG[3] of social democratic tendencies merged overnight. With the founding of the new party and the entry of a “socialist” faction into the Bundestag, hopes of establishing a policy to the left of the SPD[4] nationally they had begun to feed. Nevertheless, about ten years later, the differences had been diminishing.
A false alternative, because there was never really a revolutionary turn, which in any case would have included moving away from co-determination in the governments of this capitalist-imperialist Germany. Except for the two most radical wings of the party, the Communist Platform and the Anticapitalist Left, Die Linke's policy has been content to propose gradual reforms. Wagenknecht's program is another result of the same political framework. Ultimately, The Left itself became completely useless as an instrument of consistent struggle and fundamental changes for the working class., was oriented almost exclusively to its parliamentary presence, and by staying in a reformist program, ended up feeding the right of the party and its own descent.
Wagenknecht explicitly adopted the anti-immigrant and nationalist line of the AfD and for the first time a faction dissolved in the middle of the legislative period. Today there is only a smaller group with fewer opportunities in the Bundestag. For this hasty and resounding ending, It is so important to strengthen the socialist workers' movement and regroup the revolutionary sectors that fight for a workers and socialist government..
[1] The Union Parties (CDU/CSU) They are part of a conservative parliamentary group.
[2] The Party of Democratic Socialism (Party of Ddemocratic socialism) He was heir to the former Unified Socialist Party (SED) who ruled East Germany, between 1949 Y 1989.
[3] Work and Social Justice-The Electoral Alternative (Work & social justice-The electoral alternative) It was a match between 2005 Y 2007, split from the SPD.
[4] Social Democratic Party of Germany (Social Democratic Party of Germany). Since December 2021, presides over the federal government with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, having as coalition partners the Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
