Left leader Martin Schirdewan accuses his party colleague Sahra Wagenknecht of behavior that is damaging to the party and demands that she make an immediate decision about her future. “Sahra Wagenknecht must now clearly distance herself from her idea of founding a competing party, otherwise she will have to take the appropriate action,” said Schirdewan in Berlin. “It’s a matter of decency.”
Wagenknecht had told the news portal “ZDFheute.de” that she was thinking about founding her own party and wanted to make a decision by the end of the year. She had previously announced that she no longer wanted to run for the Bundestag for the left.
Schirdewan said: “I’m really pissed off about these continued announcements about a new party.” That was “simply irresponsible, it’s damaging to the party”. And he added: “Sahra Wagenknecht must now ensure clarity, because it is not possible for the resources of the party and the parliamentary group to be used for the simulation games to found a competing party. This is also incompatible with exercising a mandate for the party And the party cannot and will not allow that.” Schirdewan did not answer the question as to whether the party leadership was considering expulsion proceedings.
Riexinger: Wagenknecht “no longer plays a role in the party”
His predecessor Bernd Riexinger had previously told the portal “The Pioneer” about Wageknecht: “As soon as there are concrete steps towards founding a new company, there must be no more room for them in the party and parliamentary group.” Riexinger accused Wagenknecht of keeping the founding of a new party “floating in the media” because she could only initiate such a project through the media. Wagenknecht had “long since broken with our party”. She “no longer plays a role in the party” and founding a party will fail, said Riexinger.
All parties regard the expulsion of a member as complicated and lengthy. Should Wagenknecht leave the party of his own accord, this could have consequences for the left in the Bundestag: If only two other MPs went, they would lose their faction status and could only act as a group – with less money and resources. In 2021 she had only 4.9 percent of the second votes, but three direct mandates. The basic mandate clause helped her to the group strength with 39 mandates.
The member of parliament Alexander Ulrich criticized Schirdewan sharply and warned: “Anyone who wants to throw Sahra Wagenknecht out of the party and parliamentary group must know that many will then go along with it. And there will be mass resignations from the party.” The party leadership should “deal with why they are failing so much in peace and social policy that one election defeat follows the other.”
