Linke boss Janine Wissler has asked Sahra Wagenknecht to pull together with the left or to leave the party. “You have to create clarity – and not just in nine months,” she told the “Welt” (Online Sunday, Print Monday). “Either she is a member of this party and is helping to ensure its success. Then you don’t speculate about a different project every two days. Or she turns her back on the party.”
Wagenknecht told the news portal “ZDFheute.de” a few days ago that she was thinking about founding her own party and wanted to make a decision by the end of the year. She had previously stated that she no longer wanted to run for the Bundestag for the left.
Wissler called it “irresponsible” that Wagenknecht flirted with founding his own party. “You shouldn’t constantly and publicly question your own party, which voted against the Bundeswehr special fund and stands by Hartz IV recipients and strikers.” When asked what a rival party to Wagenknecht would mean for the left, Wissler said: “I’m not taking part in such speculation. But there are obviously reasons why she hasn’t founded a party so far. I have my doubts as to whether that will happen .”
The party leadership, meanwhile, opposed calls for a special party conference. The Leipzig City Association wants to hold an extraordinary meeting of delegates in order to clarify the function of the party “in times of war, climate change and increasing social upheaval”. Federal Managing Director Tobias Bank countered: “The party’s decision on the peace issue is clear and unambiguous.”
Deep crisis of the party
The background is the deep crisis of the party. The point of contention is, for example, the attitude to the Ukraine war. Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bank emphasized: “The party condemns Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, and advocates using civilian means instead of weapons to find a solution.” To this end, the party executive had adopted a peace policy action plan. “It is a legend that this is an open question within the left.” A special party congress would have the same delegates as last summer’s party congress and would probably come to similar decisions. “Against this background, it is very questionable what a special party conference should bring,” said Bank.
The left had only 4.9 percent of the votes in the 2021 federal election and then also did very poorly in state elections.
