Who can save the left now? Silence on the other end of the line. “If I only knew”, “incredibly difficult”, “we are in the deepest crisis in our party’s history”, are the answers when you speak to party experts.
In a phase in which, given record rents, fear of poverty, high inflation and a spiral of rearmament, classic left-wing issues could be booming, the left as a party is in danger of sinking into insignificance.
After the resignation of Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, co-chairman Janine Wissler wants to lead the party alone for the time being – this immediately leads to the next grumbling in the party.
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Hennig-Wellsow, a confidant of Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, gives up in exasperation, while Wissler continues in her Hessian state association despite a sexism scandal.
Shaking heads about Janine Wissler
“No one understands that anymore,” says a party strategist. The “Spiegel” had revealed spicy details about Wissler’s partner at the time, who is said to have repeatedly had sex with an underage left-wing politician and put her under pressure;
Wissler was in contact with the victim – she is accused of having swept the allegations of abuse of power and sexual abuse under the carpet. But their chances of a longer future at the top of the party are assessed internally as low. A new leadership is to be elected at the party conference in Leipzig in June.
Hennig-Wellsow and Wissler were only elected the first female dual leadership at the end of February 2021, they were unable to provide any real impetus, disputes and hatred in the party continued to increase, and there were also television appearances, some of which failed, which revealed deficits in content; Hennig-Wellsow could not say which foreign missions the Bundeswehr is in – which the left, as is well known, rejects.
She also justified her resignation with the left’s way of dealing with sexism in her own ranks, a clear dig at her co-boss Wissler.
A former beacon of hope settles accounts
But the problem is that there is a lack of prominent minds for a new beginning – no matter who you ask: no great solution is inevitable. One of their brightest minds, the financial politician Fabio de Masi, did not run for the Bundestag in September, also because he was tired of getting caught up in arguments and identity-political debates.
He is currently traveling in Italy, would he be tempted to apply for the presidency after the left leader Hennig-Wellsow resigned? He, who teased today’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz because of the Hamburg cum-ex scandal surrounding the Warburg Bank and pushed ahead with the clarification of the Wirecard scandal, speaks Tacheles when asked by the Tagesspiegel.
“The political establishment is extremely sick”
“I will not be aiming for political office in the foreseeable future,” emphasizes de Masi. “The political system is extremely sick and I have no intention of spending my lifetime again with people who have lost all contact with the reality of normal people.” The left’s brand is so damaged that it needs a hard cut.
It is important right now that there is a political force “that doesn’t burn 100 billion euros in the Bundeswehr’s procurement fund like drunk, but invests in buses and trains in the country and in the work of the future.”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the French presidential elections behind Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, has shown how left-wing politics can inspire young and old at the same time.
“The problems in Germany with the sanctions against oligarchs and the fight against money laundering also show how necessary a force would be that is not corrupted by big money,” emphasizes de Masi.
Sahra Wagenknecht polarizes with many positions
The best-known representatives in the Bundestag are those who have been there for a long time: Dietmar Bartsch (64), Gregor Gysi (74) and Sahra Wagenknecht (52) – the latter has repeatedly warned that the left is losing sight of the concerns of low-income citizens .
But she polarizes with many positions, most recently with the vaccine skepticism in the corona pandemic. The three names are also linked to the party’s various crises in recent years.
And in the major political crises, the party has not had a clear – or a highly controversial – line to offer. Be it the attitude to the measures in the pandemic, then there was the abstention on the dangerous evacuation mission of thousands of local workers in Afghanistan and most recently the trials and tribulations in the attitude to the Russian attack on Ukraine and Vladimir Putin.
The left faces a year of defeats
Most recently, Oskar Lafontaine left the party, and the left was thrown out of the state parliament in Saarland. The party could also fail at the 5 percent hurdle in the elections in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein in May and in Lower Saxony in the fall.
A party thrives on good minds and concepts – but the right candidates for a real renewal have so far been lacking. “Unfortunately, there is nothing in sight,” says the party.
Federal Managing Director Jörg Schindler, who himself has been criticized for the lack of impetus, sees his party in a “difficult situation”. “Not enough people in the Federal Republic trust the left, and of course we urgently need to work on that,” he said on Deutschlandfunk.
He is also in favor of electing a whole new board at the party conference in June. “After the general election we have a lot to clarify. Many people have perceived us as ambiguous on two issues:
in the socio-ecological restructuring, which we urgently need, as well as in foreign policy”. The party needs a new look, also in terms of personnel.
Expert suspects tactics behind Hennig-Wellsow’s resignation
The political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder now sees the left as a destructive party without a plan for the future. “For years she only worked on the SPD instead of sharpening her profile, that’s not enough.”
The attempt to set up the party equally and technically failed with the resignation of figurehead Susanne Hennig-Wellsow. He also suspects tactics behind her resignation:
“Now Janine Wissler has to follow suit, she can’t let it stand like that. And since she doesn’t seem to move of her own accord, Hennig-Wellsow and the pragmatic wing help out.”
Left board member Daphne Weber emphasizes that the sexism scandals have to be dealt with relentlessly. “The problem exists in many state associations. There are patriarchal non-cultures.”
Sexism is part of the everyday life of young women
The 26-year-old reports that sexism is part of everyday life for young women, including in the party. She does not want to downplay the case in Hesse, but such incidents are not new. “We now need a review with the help of external experts, ombudspersons who are independent of party hierarchies as contact points for those affected and binding guidelines for all party structures.”
The political scientist Albrecht von Lucke sees the left in an absolute existential crisis. “In the West, their fate as a splinter party is already sealed. As a party on a broad scale and in the state parliaments, the party is finished, it will only exist in the big cities.”
Group leader Dietmar Bartsch holds against it. In an interview with the Tagesspiegel, he confirmed that his party is undoubtedly in a crisis – but it is not the biggest.
“The death of our party has often been predicted, for example in 1990 or 2002 when we didn’t make it into the Bundestag.” Now it is important to remain a relevant party.
This can only be achieved with a joint effort. “And without talking negatively about your own party and passing the buck to each other.”
The fact that the party is in government four times in the federal states is a strong pound. “Millions of people have voted for us, we are responsible for them and we will stand up for them – by standing together.
He expresses his respect to Susanne Hennig-Wellsow and also stands in front of the remaining party leader Janine Wissler. “I think it’s right that she doesn’t take the shortcut and just give up. That is worthy of respect.”
