DThe Left Party continues to argue about its course; Opponents and supporters of the popular politician Sahra Wagenknecht blame each other. At the weekend, 13 of the 22 board members of the North Rhine-Westphalia state executive announced that they would no longer stand as candidates at the state party conference next weekend. The federal executive refuses to discuss the reasons for the poor election results, even though the party is in the worst crisis in 15 years. “We are experiencing a self-destructive culture of debate,” quoted the German Press Agency from the statement.
The reason for the state politicians’ step is the dispute with Wagenknecht, who, despite the war of aggression against Ukraine, is still pursuing a pro-Russian course and has also met with a lot of approval from AfD supporters. In a recent speech in the Bundestag, she accused the federal government of waging an “unprecedented economic war” against Russia. As a result, there was sharp criticism from the party and numerous resignations. The state association of North Rhine-Westphalia, for which Wagenknecht was the top candidate in the federal elections last year, mostly supports the former faction leader in the Bundestag.
A few days ago, Wagenknecht provoked her party by saying that the Greens were “the most dangerous party” in the Bundestag. Dietmar Bartsch, chairman of the parliamentary group and associated with Wagenknecht in a power alliance, disagreed; the most dangerous party is still the AfD. Other leading left-wing politicians were also outraged. The Left governs with SPD and Greens in Berlin, Thuringia and Bremen.
Wagenknecht has also been associated with an attempt to found his own party for weeks. She hopes “that a party will emerge in Germany that can change government policy,” she recently told Bild TV, but added that founding a party is not that easy. Wagenknecht had already failed in 2018 with an attempt to launch a broad left-wing collection movement called “Get Up”.
