On either side of the Rhine, the left of the left is in opposite situations. While La France Insoumise (LFI) has never had so much momentum, Die Linke, which held its congress from June 24 to 26 in Erfurt, in the center of Germany, is going through a crisis that can easily be described as existential.
Die Linke was born in 2007 from the merger of the PDS, heir to the party that governed the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War, and the WASG, a heterogeneous alliance of left-wing social democrats, neo-Marxists and alter-globalists from the west of the country. It has just had the worst electoral year in its history. Since 2021, it has only had 39 elected members in the Bundestag, 30 fewer than in the previous legislature, making it the smallest group in the German parliament.
At the regional level, the setbacks are also continuing. In March, Die Linke won only 2.6% of the vote (-10.3 points) in Saarland, the stronghold of one of its founders, former finance minister Oskar Lafontaine (1998-1999), who himself tore up his membership card ten days before the election. In May, the party obtained only 1.7% in Schleswig-Holstein (-2.1) and 2.1% in North Rhine-Westphalia (-2.8), below the 5% threshold to have representatives.
Moral problems
In addition to electoral defeats, there have been moral issues. In an investigation published in mid-April, the weekly Der Spiegel collected testimonies in cases of sexual harassment and assault, particularly against the ex-partner of one of the two co-chairs of the party, Janine Wissler, who was herself accused of trying to cover up the scandal. Following these revelations, the other co-president, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, resigned saying that "the way in which sexism is dealt with internally speaks volumes about the seriousness of the party's failings."
On Saturday, Janine Wissler, 41, was re-elected for a second term as party leader, but by only 57% of delegates compared to the 84% who voted for her in February 2021. Alongside her, MEP Martin Schirdewan, 46, will take the other seat in the leadership tandem. "It is urgent to put the question of bread and butter back at the heart of our politics," he said. For him, Die Linke must refocus its line on the theme of purchasing power, firstly because of the importance of this subject in the context of inflationary pressures, but also to avoid other politically more delicate subjects. Starting with the war in Ukraine.
In Erfurt, this was a major part of the debate. A group of about 50 delegates, close to former leader of the parliamentary group Sahra Wagenknecht, who is also Mr. Lafontaine's wife, wanted to delete this sentence from the final declaration of the congress: "We strongly condemn the criminal war of aggression waged by Russia." They also wanted the "responsibility of NATO" to be mentioned among the causes of the conflict. They did not succeed in imposing their views.
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