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The Left (Germany)
Encyclopedia
The Left also commonly referred to as the Left Party , is a democratic socialist
political party
in Germany
. The Left is the most left-wing
party of the five represented in the Bundestag
.
The party was founded on 16 June 2007 as the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS)—the successor of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
(the ruling party of East Germany until 1989)—and the Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG). While the PDS was considered by German authorities as partly extremist, the WASG was not considered extremist. Its co-chairs are Klaus Ernst
and Gesine Lötzsch
. In the Bundestag the party has 76 out of 622 seats after polling 11.9% of the vote in the 2009 federal elections. Internationally, The Left is a member of the Party of the European Left
and is the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left
grouping in the European Parliament
.
According to official party figures, the Left Party had 77,645 registered members as of September 2009, making it the fourth-largest party in Germany.
in 1989 also empowered a younger generation of reformist politicians in East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party
(SED) who looked to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
's Glasnost
and Perestroika
as their model for political change. Reformers like politician Hans Modrow
, attorney Gregor Gysi
and dissidents like Rudolf Bahro
and Stefan Heym
soon began to reconstruct the political profile of the party. By the end of 1989, the last hardline members of the party's Central Committee had resigned, followed in 1990 by 95% of the SED's 2.3 million members.
At a special congress in December 1989 the party renounced its former "leading role" in society and adopted a program of democratic reform. To distance the reformed party from the SED's communist
ideology, the party added the words "Party of Democratic Socialism" to its name, finally dropping the words "Socialist Unity Party" in February 1990. Gysi became the new leader. By then, the PDS was no longer a Marxist-Leninist
party, though neo-Marxist
and communist minority factions continue to exist. On18 March 1990, the PDS won 16.4% of the vote in the first free elections in East Germany, and became the largest opposition party. The new government was led by the conservative Alliance for Germany
, with 48% of the vote.
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elections in 1990
, the PDS won only 2.4% of the nationwide vote, but through an exception to Germany's electoral law entered the Bundestag with 17 deputies led by Gysi. In the 1994 federal election
, in spite of an aggressive anti-communist "Red Socks" campaign organised against the PDS by the then-ruling Christian Democratic Union aimed at scaring off voters, the PDS managed to increase its share of the vote to 4.4 percent, winning a plurality in four eastern electoral districts, and re-entered the Bundestag with an enlarged caucus of 30 deputies. In 1998, the party reached the high-water mark in its fortunes by electing 37 deputies with 5.1% of the national vote, thus surpassing the 5% threshold required for guaranteed representation and full parliamentary status in the Bundestag. Gysi's resignation in 2000 after losing a policy debate with leftist factions brought conflict to the PDS. In the 2002 federal election
, the party's share of the vote declined to 4.0%. For the next four years, the PDS was represented by two backbenchers elected directly from their districts, Petra Pau
and Gesine Lötzsch
.
After the 2002 debacle, the PDS adopted a new, moderate program and re-installed long-time Gysi ally Lothar Bisky
as chairman. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the PDS won 6.1% of the vote nationwide, its highest share at that time in a federal election. Its electoral base in the eastern German states continued to grow, where today it ranks with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany
(SPD) as one of the region's three strongest parties. However, low membership and voter support in Germany's western states continued to plague the party until it formed an electoral alliance in July 2005 with the newly-formed Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG), a party largely consisting of dissident Social Democrats, trade union members, and an assortment of left-wing radicals.
and pledged to unify into a single left-wing party during 2007. According to the pact, the parties did not compete against each another in any district. Instead, WASG candidates—including the former SPD leader, Oskar Lafontaine
—were nominated on the PDS electoral list. To symbolise the new relationship, the PDS changed its name to The Left Party.PDS (Linkspartei.PDS) or simply The Left.PDS, with the letters "PDS" optional in western states where many voters still regarded the Party of Democratic Socialism with suspicion.
The alliance benefited from a strong electoral base in the east and WASG's growing voter potential in the west. Gregor Gysi, returning to public life only months after brain surgery and two heart attack
s, shared the spotlight with Lafontaine as co-leader of the party.
Polls early in the summer showed the unified Left list winning as much as 12 percent of the vote, and for a time it seemed possible the party would surge past the established Alliance '90/The Greens
and right–liberal
Free Democratic Party
and become the third-strongest faction of the Bundestag. Alarmed by the Left's unexpected rise in the polls, Germany's mainstream politicians attacked Lafontaine and Gysi as "leftist populists" and "demagogues" and accused the party of flirting with neo-Nazi voters. A gaffe by Lafontaine, who described "foreign workers" as a threat in one speech early in the campaign, provided ammunition for charges that The Left was attempting to exploit German xenophobia and anti-democratic populism
to attract voters from the far-right.
In spite of all this, in the 2005 elections the Left Party became the fourth largest party in the Bundestag with 8.7% of the nationwide vote and 53 seats. Negotiations on unification between Left Party.PDS and WASG continued through the next year until the two forces reached agreement on 27 March 2007. The joint party—now called simply "The Left"—celebrated its founding congress on 16 June in Berlin.
The unified party soon became an electoral force in Western Germany for the first time, winning a modest number of seats in state elections in Bremen
, Lower Saxony
, Hesse and Hamburg
. The "five-party system" in Germany was now a reality in the west as well as the east.
A string of electoral successes followed in the "Super Election Year" of 2009. In the campaign for seats in the European Parliament, The Left party won 7.5% of the vote nationwide, continuing a steady upward trend in European elections (1994: 4.7%, 1999: 5.8%, 2004: 6.1%). In six state elections, the party either surged ahead or consolidated earlier gains, increasing its vote in Thuringia
and Hesse
, and winning seats for the first time in Schleswig Holstein
. In Saarland
, the party became a significant force for the first time in a western state, winning 19.2% of the vote and taking third place ahead of the Free Democratic Party and the Greens. In Saxony
and Brandenburg
, the party's vote declined slightly while it remained the second largest political force in both states.
The electoral collapse of the Social Democratic Party in the federal election on 27 September 2009 gave The Left an unprecedented opportunity to increase its influence in German politics. The party's vote surged to 11.9 percent, increasing its representation in the Bundestag from 54 to 76 seats. It remains the second largest opposition party.
in order to overcome capitalism
. As a platform for left politics in the wake of globalization
, The Left includes many different factions, ranging from communists
to social democrats
. The Left has not yet adopted its own party program, although it issued a detailed electoral program ahead of the 2009 federal campaign. In March 2007, during the joint party convention of Left Party and WASG, a document outlining political principles was agreed on.
The party's fiscal policies are based on Keynesian economics
, originating from the 1930s when governments responded to the Great Depression
. The central bank and government should collaborate with expansionary fiscal and monetary policies in order to ameliorate business cycle
s, to support economic growth, and to reduce unemployment. Wage rises in the private sector should be determined through the productivity growth, the target inflation rate of the European Central Bank
, and master contract
s.
The party aims at rises in government spending
in the areas of public investments, education, research and development, culture, and infrastructure, as well as rises in taxes for large corporations. It calls for increases in inheritance tax
rates and the reinstatement of the individual "net worth" tax. The Left aims at a linear income tax
progression, which would reduce the tax burden for lower and middle incomes, while raising the top tax rate. The combating of tax loopholes is a perennial issue, as The Left believes that they primarily benefit people with high incomes.
The financial markets should be subject to heavier government regulation, with the goal, among others, to reduce the speculation of bonds and derivatives. The party wants to strengthen anti-trust laws
and empower cooperatives to decentralise the economy. Further economic reforms shall include solidarity and more self-determination for workers, the rejection of privatization and the introduction of a federal minimum wage
, and more generally the overthrow of property and power structures in which, citing Karl Marx
's aphorism, "man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence".
Concerning foreign policy, The Left calls for international disarmament
, while ruling out any form of involvement of the Bundeswehr
outside of Germany. The party calls for a replacement of the NATO with a collective security system including Russia as a member country. German foreign policy should be strictly confined to the goals of civil diplomacy and cooperation, instead of confrontation.
The Left supports further debt cancellations for developing countries and increases in development aid, in collaboration with the United Nations
, World Trade Organization
, World Bank
, and diverse bilateral treaties among countries. The party supports reform of the United Nations
as long as it is aimed at a fair balance between developed and developing countries. All American military bases within Germany, and if possible in the European Union
, enacted within a binding treaty, shall be dissolved. The Left welcomes the European process of integration, while opposing what it believes to be neoliberal
policies in the European Union. The party strives for the democratisation of the EU institutions and a stronger role of the United Nations in international politics. The Left opposed both the War in Afghanistan
and in Iraq, as well as the Lisbon Treaty.
of the former German Democratic Republic
, while most in the Left Party today do not. Some perceive this as a matter of public controversy in Germany. For example in 2001, Gabi Zimmer, the head of the Left Party's predecessor PDS at the time, officially recognized the injustice of building the Berlin wall
in 1961, but she did not feel compelled to apologize on behalf of the Party.
. The Left Party and some of its caucuses remain under observation by the BfV, listed in the annual Verfassungsschutzbericht under the heading "left-extremist tendencies and suspected cases". The 2007 report cites as evidence of the party's "extremism" Lothar Bisky
's June 2007 statement that democratic socialism
remains the party's goal: "We also still discuss the change of property and power relations.... We ask the 'system question'." However, the report notes that in practice the parliamentary party appears as to act as a "reform-oriented" left force. In addition, the report cites "openly extremist groupings" within the party, notably the Marxist-Leninist Communist Platform
, which in Sahra Wagenknecht
has a representative on the 44-member Left Party executive. One former Bundestag deputy, Bodo Ramelow
, was under BfV surveillance until a court decision in January 2008 that the observation was illegal.
The Left is also under observation by four western CDU
/CSU
-governed states (Lower Saxony, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria). Saarland ceased observation of The Left in January 2008. By contrast, in the 5 eastern states The Left is not under surveillance, with the local LfVs seeing no indication of anti-constitutional behaviour of the party as a whole. However the small "Communist Platform"—a minority faction within the party—is under observation in 3 eastern states.
in memory of the German reunification
and the fall of the German Democratic Republic, all members of The Left walked out in protest. The Left was upset that Joachim Gauck
, the former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives and a human rights activist (as well as a 2010 presidential candidate for the SPD and Greens) was invited to give a speech.
Until 2007, the former Party of Democratic Socialism was represented only in the state parliaments
of eastern Germany and Berlin
, including Brandenburg
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
, Saxony
, Saxony-Anhalt
and Thuringia
.
After the May 2007 election Bremen
, a joint PDS-WASG ticket was able to form a parliamentary group for the first time in a western state. After the PDS-WASG merger, The Left continued to make gains in what was the western Germany, entering the state parliaments
in Lower Saxony
, Hesse
, Hamburg and recently in North Rhine-Westphalia
In Hesse, state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti
sought to form a minority government
with the Greens, which would have required the support of The Left's new parliamentary group despite a campaign promise not to cooperate with The Left. This would have been the first time that The Left formed any alliance with a government in a western state. The SPD and Left state organisations ratified an agreement that guaranteed The Left's acceptance of an SPD-Green government which Left deputies would support with their votes. The move was controversial in the SPD. Some of the party's representatives in parliament rejected cooperation with a party they considered extremist. After months of debate, the proposed government was scheduled to be brought to a vote in the Hessian Landtag on 4 November 2008. On the eve of the vote, four SPD deputies broke with party discipline
and declared they would vote against Ypsilanti, effectively blocking an SPD-led government. As a result, new elections did take place in January 2009. Ypsilanti stepped down as the SPD's chief candidate, and she has been replaced by party deputy Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
. In this election the Linke gained 0.3% on the result one year earlier (now 5.4%), staying in parliament (the SPD lost 13%, the Greens gained 6.2%)
The Left contested an election in Bavaria for the first time in the September 2008 Bavaria state election
. It garnered 4.3 percent of the vote, just short of the 5 percent necessary to win seats in the Landtag.
In October 2008 the Left Party nominated Tatort
actor and activist Peter Sodann
as their candidate for the 2009 presidential election
. Since the German president is chosen by the Bundesversammlung
, consisting of all members of the Bundestag and an equal number of Bundesrat-selected delegates, Sodann did not win but he got 91 of the 1223 votes cast (The Left had 90 delegates).
es, most often referred to as platforms
or forums.
In addition to the main platforms, a number of far-left groups have aligned with the Left Party and its predecessors, the PDS and WASG, including Linksruck
(now known as Marx21). The Trotskyist Socialist Alternative has also joined, but the applications of some of its leaders, including Lucy Redler
, for party membership were initially rejected (Redler has since become a member). Der Funke, supporters of the International Marxist Tendency
in Germany, pursues entrist tactics in Die Linke. Other left-wing groups, such as the German Communist Party
(DKP), have formed local alliances with The Left but have not joined the party.
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The Left is the most left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
party of the five represented in the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
.
The party was founded on 16 June 2007 as the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS)—the successor of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
(the ruling party of East Germany until 1989)—and the Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG). While the PDS was considered by German authorities as partly extremist, the WASG was not considered extremist. Its co-chairs are Klaus Ernst
Klaus Ernst
Klaus Ernst is a left-wing German politician and was a leading member of the Labour and Social Justice Party and now The Left...
and Gesine Lötzsch
Gesine Lötzsch
Gesine Lötzsch [geˈsinə løːtʃ] is a German politician of the left-wing party Die Linke. She was elected president of Die Linke in 2010 ....
. In the Bundestag the party has 76 out of 622 seats after polling 11.9% of the vote in the 2009 federal elections. Internationally, The Left is a member of the Party of the European Left
Party of the European Left
The Party of the European Left, commonly abbreviated to just the European Left, is a political party at European level and an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. It was formed in January 2004 for the purposes of...
and is the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left
European United Left–Nordic Green Left
European United Left/Nordic Green Left is a left-wing political group with seats in the European Parliament since 1995.-Position:According to its 1994 constituent declaration, the group is opposed to the present European political structure, but committed to integration...
grouping in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
According to official party figures, the Left Party had 77,645 registered members as of September 2009, making it the fourth-largest party in Germany.
Foundation
The mass protests that forced the dismissal of East German head of state Erich HoneckerErich Honecker
Erich Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well from Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976....
in 1989 also empowered a younger generation of reformist politicians in East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
(SED) who looked to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
's Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
and Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
as their model for political change. Reformers like politician Hans Modrow
Hans Modrow
Hans Modrow is a German politician, best known as the last communist premier of East Germany. He currently is the honorary Chairman of the Left Party....
, attorney Gregor Gysi
Gregor Gysi
Dr. Gregor Gysi is a German attorney and key politician of the socialist left-wing political party The Left . He played an important role in the end of communist rule in East Germany in 1989, and was a main figure in the post-reunification Party of Democratic Socialism...
and dissidents like Rudolf Bahro
Rudolf Bahro
Rudolf Bahro was a philosopher, political figure and author who was a noted East German dissident and who became a leader of the West German party The Greens...
and Stefan Heym
Stefan Heym
Helmut Flieg was a German-Jewish writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to the part of his native Germany which was, from 1949–1990, German Democratic Republic...
soon began to reconstruct the political profile of the party. By the end of 1989, the last hardline members of the party's Central Committee had resigned, followed in 1990 by 95% of the SED's 2.3 million members.
At a special congress in December 1989 the party renounced its former "leading role" in society and adopted a program of democratic reform. To distance the reformed party from the SED's communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
ideology, the party added the words "Party of Democratic Socialism" to its name, finally dropping the words "Socialist Unity Party" in February 1990. Gysi became the new leader. By then, the PDS was no longer a Marxist-Leninist
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
party, though neo-Marxist
Neo-Marxism
Neo-Marxism is a loose term for various twentieth-century approaches that amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, usually by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions, such as: critical theory, psychoanalysis or Existentialism .Erik Olin Wright's theory of contradictory class...
and communist minority factions continue to exist. On18 March 1990, the PDS won 16.4% of the vote in the first free elections in East Germany, and became the largest opposition party. The new government was led by the conservative Alliance for Germany
Alliance for Germany
The Alliance for Germany was an opposition coalition in East Germany. It was formed on 5 February 1990 in Berlin to stand in the East-German Volkskammer elections. It consisted of the Christian Democratic Union, Democratic Awakening and the German Social Union...
, with 48% of the vote.
Up to 2005
In the first all-German BundestagBundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
elections in 1990
German federal election, 1990
The 12th German federal election, 1990 was conducted on December 2, 1990, to elect members to the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany...
, the PDS won only 2.4% of the nationwide vote, but through an exception to Germany's electoral law entered the Bundestag with 17 deputies led by Gysi. In the 1994 federal election
German federal election, 1994
The 13th German federal election, 1994 was conducted on October 16, 1994, to elect members to the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany.-Issues and Campaign:The SPD let its members elect a candidate for Chancellor against Helmut Kohl...
, in spite of an aggressive anti-communist "Red Socks" campaign organised against the PDS by the then-ruling Christian Democratic Union aimed at scaring off voters, the PDS managed to increase its share of the vote to 4.4 percent, winning a plurality in four eastern electoral districts, and re-entered the Bundestag with an enlarged caucus of 30 deputies. In 1998, the party reached the high-water mark in its fortunes by electing 37 deputies with 5.1% of the national vote, thus surpassing the 5% threshold required for guaranteed representation and full parliamentary status in the Bundestag. Gysi's resignation in 2000 after losing a policy debate with leftist factions brought conflict to the PDS. In the 2002 federal election
German federal election, 2002
The 15th German federal election, 2002 was conducted on 22 September 2002, to elect members to the Bundestag of Germany.-Issues and campaign:...
, the party's share of the vote declined to 4.0%. For the next four years, the PDS was represented by two backbenchers elected directly from their districts, Petra Pau
Petra Pau
Petra Pau is a member of The Left in the German parliament, the Bundestag. First elected in 1998, from 2002 - 2005 she was one of just two party representatives, having been directly elected as the representative of Berlin Marzahn – Hellersdorf, a working-class area of east Berlin...
and Gesine Lötzsch
Gesine Lötzsch
Gesine Lötzsch [geˈsinə løːtʃ] is a German politician of the left-wing party Die Linke. She was elected president of Die Linke in 2010 ....
.
After the 2002 debacle, the PDS adopted a new, moderate program and re-installed long-time Gysi ally Lothar Bisky
Lothar Bisky
Lothar Bisky is a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism , the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party . In June 2007 he became co-chairman of the The Left party, formed by a merger of the PDS and the much smaller Labour and Social Justice – The...
as chairman. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the PDS won 6.1% of the vote nationwide, its highest share at that time in a federal election. Its electoral base in the eastern German states continued to grow, where today it ranks with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(SPD) as one of the region's three strongest parties. However, low membership and voter support in Germany's western states continued to plague the party until it formed an electoral alliance in July 2005 with the newly-formed Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG), a party largely consisting of dissident Social Democrats, trade union members, and an assortment of left-wing radicals.
Alliance with the WASG
After negotiations, the PDS and WASG agreed on terms for a combined ticket to compete in the 2005 federal electionGerman federal election, 2005
German federal elections took place on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. They became necessary after a motion of confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on 1 July...
and pledged to unify into a single left-wing party during 2007. According to the pact, the parties did not compete against each another in any district. Instead, WASG candidates—including the former SPD leader, Oskar Lafontaine
Oskar Lafontaine
Oskar Lafontaine is a German politician, former German finance minister, former chairman of the Social Democratic Party and former Minister-President of the state of Saarland. Since 2007 he was co-chairman of The Left...
—were nominated on the PDS electoral list. To symbolise the new relationship, the PDS changed its name to The Left Party.PDS (Linkspartei.PDS) or simply The Left.PDS, with the letters "PDS" optional in western states where many voters still regarded the Party of Democratic Socialism with suspicion.
The alliance benefited from a strong electoral base in the east and WASG's growing voter potential in the west. Gregor Gysi, returning to public life only months after brain surgery and two heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
s, shared the spotlight with Lafontaine as co-leader of the party.
Polls early in the summer showed the unified Left list winning as much as 12 percent of the vote, and for a time it seemed possible the party would surge past the established Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
and right–liberal
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
Free Democratic Party
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
and become the third-strongest faction of the Bundestag. Alarmed by the Left's unexpected rise in the polls, Germany's mainstream politicians attacked Lafontaine and Gysi as "leftist populists" and "demagogues" and accused the party of flirting with neo-Nazi voters. A gaffe by Lafontaine, who described "foreign workers" as a threat in one speech early in the campaign, provided ammunition for charges that The Left was attempting to exploit German xenophobia and anti-democratic populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
to attract voters from the far-right.
In spite of all this, in the 2005 elections the Left Party became the fourth largest party in the Bundestag with 8.7% of the nationwide vote and 53 seats. Negotiations on unification between Left Party.PDS and WASG continued through the next year until the two forces reached agreement on 27 March 2007. The joint party—now called simply "The Left"—celebrated its founding congress on 16 June in Berlin.
The unified party soon became an electoral force in Western Germany for the first time, winning a modest number of seats in state elections in Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, Hesse and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. The "five-party system" in Germany was now a reality in the west as well as the east.
A string of electoral successes followed in the "Super Election Year" of 2009. In the campaign for seats in the European Parliament, The Left party won 7.5% of the vote nationwide, continuing a steady upward trend in European elections (1994: 4.7%, 1999: 5.8%, 2004: 6.1%). In six state elections, the party either surged ahead or consolidated earlier gains, increasing its vote in Thuringia
Thuringia state election, 2009
Thuringia held state elections on 30 August 2009, the same day as the Saarland and Saxony state elections. The election established the composition of the Landtag of Thuringia...
and Hesse
Hesse state election, 2009
Early state elections for the Landtag of Hesse were held in Hesse on 18 January 2009. The reason for the early elections was the inability of the parties to form a government after the inconclusive 2008 Hessian election.-Issues and background:...
, and winning seats for the first time in Schleswig Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein state election, 2009
State elections were held in Schleswig-Holstein on 27 September 2009, the same day as the German federal elections and the Brandenburg state elections...
. In Saarland
Saarland state election, 2009
State elections were held in Saarland on 30 August 2009, the same date as the Saxony and Thuringia state elections. The election decided control of the Landtag of Saarland .-Results:...
, the party became a significant force for the first time in a western state, winning 19.2% of the vote and taking third place ahead of the Free Democratic Party and the Greens. In Saxony
Saxony state election, 2009
State elections took place in Saxony on 30 August 2009, the same day as the Saarland and Thuringia state elections. The election results decided control of the Landtag of Saxony...
and Brandenburg
Brandenburg state election, 2009
State elections were held in Brandenburg on 27 September 2009, the same day as the German federal elections and the Schleswig-Holstein state elections...
, the party's vote declined slightly while it remained the second largest political force in both states.
The electoral collapse of the Social Democratic Party in the federal election on 27 September 2009 gave The Left an unprecedented opportunity to increase its influence in German politics. The party's vote surged to 11.9 percent, increasing its representation in the Bundestag from 54 to 76 seats. It remains the second largest opposition party.
Policies
The Left aims for democratic socialismDemocratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
in order to overcome capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
. As a platform for left politics in the wake of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, The Left includes many different factions, ranging from communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
to social democrats
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
. The Left has not yet adopted its own party program, although it issued a detailed electoral program ahead of the 2009 federal campaign. In March 2007, during the joint party convention of Left Party and WASG, a document outlining political principles was agreed on.
The party's fiscal policies are based on Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics
Keynesian economics is a school of macroeconomic thought based on the ideas of 20th-century English economist John Maynard Keynes.Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and, therefore, advocates active policy responses by the...
, originating from the 1930s when governments responded to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The central bank and government should collaborate with expansionary fiscal and monetary policies in order to ameliorate business cycle
Business cycle
The term business cycle refers to economy-wide fluctuations in production or economic activity over several months or years...
s, to support economic growth, and to reduce unemployment. Wage rises in the private sector should be determined through the productivity growth, the target inflation rate of the European Central Bank
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
, and master contract
Master contract
A master contract is a contract reached between parties, in which the parties agree to most of the terms that will govern future transactions or future agreements...
s.
The party aims at rises in government spending
Government spending
Government spending includes all government consumption, investment but excludes transfer payments made by a state. Government acquisition of goods and services for current use to directly satisfy individual or collective needs of the members of the community is classed as government final...
in the areas of public investments, education, research and development, culture, and infrastructure, as well as rises in taxes for large corporations. It calls for increases in inheritance tax
Inheritance tax
An inheritance tax or estate tax is a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property or a tax on the estate of a person who has died...
rates and the reinstatement of the individual "net worth" tax. The Left aims at a linear income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
progression, which would reduce the tax burden for lower and middle incomes, while raising the top tax rate. The combating of tax loopholes is a perennial issue, as The Left believes that they primarily benefit people with high incomes.
The financial markets should be subject to heavier government regulation, with the goal, among others, to reduce the speculation of bonds and derivatives. The party wants to strengthen anti-trust laws
Competition law
Competition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, is law that promotes or maintains market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies....
and empower cooperatives to decentralise the economy. Further economic reforms shall include solidarity and more self-determination for workers, the rejection of privatization and the introduction of a federal minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
, and more generally the overthrow of property and power structures in which, citing Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's aphorism, "man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence".
Concerning foreign policy, The Left calls for international disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
, while ruling out any form of involvement of the Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
outside of Germany. The party calls for a replacement of the NATO with a collective security system including Russia as a member country. German foreign policy should be strictly confined to the goals of civil diplomacy and cooperation, instead of confrontation.
The Left supports further debt cancellations for developing countries and increases in development aid, in collaboration with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, and diverse bilateral treaties among countries. The party supports reform of the United Nations
Reform of the United Nations
Since the late 1990s there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations . However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role confined to humanitarian work or...
as long as it is aimed at a fair balance between developed and developing countries. All American military bases within Germany, and if possible in the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, enacted within a binding treaty, shall be dissolved. The Left welcomes the European process of integration, while opposing what it believes to be neoliberal
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
policies in the European Union. The party strives for the democratisation of the EU institutions and a stronger role of the United Nations in international politics. The Left opposed both the War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
and in Iraq, as well as the Lisbon Treaty.
Controversies
Some feel the Left Party is responsible for the actions of a predecessor party, the SEDSocialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
of the former German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
, while most in the Left Party today do not. Some perceive this as a matter of public controversy in Germany. For example in 2001, Gabi Zimmer, the head of the Left Party's predecessor PDS at the time, officially recognized the injustice of building the Berlin wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
in 1961, but she did not feel compelled to apologize on behalf of the Party.
Observation by Verfassungsschutz
Germany operates a system of "Verfassungsschutz" (Protection of the Constitution) at both federal level (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) and state level (Landesbehörden für Verfassungsschutz, LfV), which carries out domestic surveillance of actual and suspected activities which may threaten the "free and democratic basic order" ("freiheitlich-demokratische Grundordnung") at the core of the German constitutionBasic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the constitution of Germany. It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of the Allies of World War II on 12 May, came into effect on 23 May, as the constitution of those states of West Germany that were initially included...
. The Left Party and some of its caucuses remain under observation by the BfV, listed in the annual Verfassungsschutzbericht under the heading "left-extremist tendencies and suspected cases". The 2007 report cites as evidence of the party's "extremism" Lothar Bisky
Lothar Bisky
Lothar Bisky is a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism , the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party . In June 2007 he became co-chairman of the The Left party, formed by a merger of the PDS and the much smaller Labour and Social Justice – The...
's June 2007 statement that democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
remains the party's goal: "We also still discuss the change of property and power relations.... We ask the 'system question'." However, the report notes that in practice the parliamentary party appears as to act as a "reform-oriented" left force. In addition, the report cites "openly extremist groupings" within the party, notably the Marxist-Leninist Communist Platform
Communist Platform
The Communist Platform is an association within the German Left Party. Among the main goals of the KPF are the preservation and advancement of Marxist thought, other goals are improving the situation of the poor and battling racism. Its most prominent member is Sahra Wagenknecht, who was a member...
, which in Sahra Wagenknecht
Sahra Wagenknecht
Sahra Wagenknecht is a German politician. She is a Member of the Bundestag, author, and a member of the National Committee of the Left Party. Since May 2010 she is deputy chairperson of Die Linke.- Early life :...
has a representative on the 44-member Left Party executive. One former Bundestag deputy, Bodo Ramelow
Bodo Ramelow
Bodo Ramelow is a German politician of the Left Party. He is deputy chairman of his party's group in the Bundestag....
, was under BfV surveillance until a court decision in January 2008 that the observation was illegal.
The Left is also under observation by four western CDU
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
/CSU
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
-governed states (Lower Saxony, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria). Saarland ceased observation of The Left in January 2008. By contrast, in the 5 eastern states The Left is not under surveillance, with the local LfVs seeing no indication of anti-constitutional behaviour of the party as a whole. However the small "Communist Platform"—a minority faction within the party—is under observation in 3 eastern states.
2007 Walkout in Saxon Parliament
On 3 October 2007, during a commemoration ceremony in the Saxon ParliamentLandtag of Saxony
The Landtag of Saxony, also referred to as the Parliament of Saxony or the Saxon Parliament, is the German state of Saxony's legislature...
in memory of the German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
and the fall of the German Democratic Republic, all members of The Left walked out in protest. The Left was upset that Joachim Gauck
Joachim Gauck
Joachim Gauck is a German politician, journalist and theologian. After a brief political career during Die Wende in Eastern Germany, the co-founder of the New Forum was elected member of the People's Chamber for the Alliance 90 in 1990...
, the former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives and a human rights activist (as well as a 2010 presidential candidate for the SPD and Greens) was invited to give a speech.
Elections and support
| Election year | % of vote |
|---|---|
| 1990 German federal election, 1990 The 12th German federal election, 1990 was conducted on December 2, 1990, to elect members to the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany... |
2.4% |
| 1994 German federal election, 1994 The 13th German federal election, 1994 was conducted on October 16, 1994, to elect members to the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany.-Issues and Campaign:The SPD let its members elect a candidate for Chancellor against Helmut Kohl... |
4.4% |
| 1998 German federal election, 1998 A German federal election was conducted on September 27, 1998, to elect members to the 14th Bundestag, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany.- Issues and campaign :... |
5.1% |
| 2002 German federal election, 2002 The 15th German federal election, 2002 was conducted on 22 September 2002, to elect members to the Bundestag of Germany.-Issues and campaign:... |
4.0% |
| 2005 German federal election, 2005 German federal elections took place on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th German Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany. They became necessary after a motion of confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder failed on 1 July... |
8.7% |
| 2009 | 11.9% |
| Election year | % of vote |
|---|---|
| 1994 European Parliament election, 1994 (Germany) The European Parliament election of 1994 in Germany was the election of the delegation from Germany to the European Parliament in 1994.-References:... |
4.7% |
| 1999 European Parliament election, 1999 (Germany) The European Parliament election of 1999 in Germany was the election of MEP representing Germany constituency for the 1999-2004 term of the European Parliament.... |
5.8% |
| 2004 European Parliament election, 2004 (Germany) The European Parliament election of 2004 in Germany was the election of MEP representing Germany constituency for the 2004-2009 term of the European Parliament. The vote was held on June 13, 2004.... |
6.1% |
| 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (Germany) The European Parliament election of 2009 in Germany was the German part of the European Parliament election, 2009. The voting was held on Sunday, 7 June. A total of 26 parties competed for the 99 seats reserved for Germany in the European Parliament... |
7.5% |
Until 2007, the former Party of Democratic Socialism was represented only in the state parliaments
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
of eastern Germany and Berlin
Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin
The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin is the state parliament for the German state of Berlin, according to the state's constitution. The parliament is based at the building on Niederkirchnerstraße in Mitte which until 1934 was the seat of the lower house of the Preußischer Landtag...
, including Brandenburg
Landtag of Brandenburg
The Landtag of Brandenburg is the unicameral legislature of the state of Brandenburg in Germany.It has 88 members of parliament, currently belonging to four parties.-History:...
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
The Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the state diet of the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern . It convenes in Schwerin and currently consists of 71 members of five Parties...
, Saxony
Landtag of Saxony
The Landtag of Saxony, also referred to as the Parliament of Saxony or the Saxon Parliament, is the German state of Saxony's legislature...
, Saxony-Anhalt
Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt
The Saxony-Anhalt Landtag is the state diet of the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. It convenes in Magdeburg and currently consists of 97 members of four Parties...
and Thuringia
Landtag of Thuringia
The Landtag of Thuringia is the state diet of the German federal state of Thuringia. It convenes in Erfurt and currently consists of 88 members of three Parties...
.
After the May 2007 election Bremen
Bremen state election, 2007
State elections were held in Bremen on 13 May 2007 to elect the Bürgerschaft .After the elections, Jens Böhrnsen, the SPD prime minister, was able to pick his future coalition partner. He could either continue the grand coalition with the CDU or form a red-green coalition...
, a joint PDS-WASG ticket was able to form a parliamentary group for the first time in a western state. After the PDS-WASG merger, The Left continued to make gains in what was the western Germany, entering the state parliaments
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony state election, 2008
The 2008 Lower Saxony state election was held in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany on 27 January 2008. Despite losing votes and seats, the ruling Christian Democratic Union held on to its position as the leading party in the state...
, Hesse
Hesse state election, 2008
The state election to elect members of the Landtag of Hesse was held in the German state of Hesse on 27 January 2008.-Background and issues:...
, Hamburg and recently in North Rhine-Westphalia
Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia
The Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia is the state diet of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It convenes in Düsseldorf and currently consists of 181 members of five Parties...
In Hesse, state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti
Andrea Ypsilanti
Andrea Ypsilanti is a German politician.-Political career:Ypsilanti is a member of the Hessian Landtag and was chairperson of the Social Democratic Party of Hesse from March 2003 to January 2009.In the Hesse state elections of 2008, held on 27 January 2008, she was the SPD's candidate for the...
sought to form a minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
with the Greens, which would have required the support of The Left's new parliamentary group despite a campaign promise not to cooperate with The Left. This would have been the first time that The Left formed any alliance with a government in a western state. The SPD and Left state organisations ratified an agreement that guaranteed The Left's acceptance of an SPD-Green government which Left deputies would support with their votes. The move was controversial in the SPD. Some of the party's representatives in parliament rejected cooperation with a party they considered extremist. After months of debate, the proposed government was scheduled to be brought to a vote in the Hessian Landtag on 4 November 2008. On the eve of the vote, four SPD deputies broke with party discipline
Party discipline
Party discipline is the ability of a parliamentary group of a political party to get its members to support the policies of their party leadership. In liberal democracies, it usually refers to the control that party leaders have over its legislature...
and declared they would vote against Ypsilanti, effectively blocking an SPD-led government. As a result, new elections did take place in January 2009. Ypsilanti stepped down as the SPD's chief candidate, and she has been replaced by party deputy Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel is a German politician of the SPD.He is currently the leader of the opposition SPD party bloc in the Hessian state parliament...
. In this election the Linke gained 0.3% on the result one year earlier (now 5.4%), staying in parliament (the SPD lost 13%, the Greens gained 6.2%)
The Left contested an election in Bavaria for the first time in the September 2008 Bavaria state election
Bavaria state election, 2008
The 2008 Bavarian state election was held on September 28, 2008. Voters of the German state of Bavaria elected members to the Bavarian Landtag .-Outcome:...
. It garnered 4.3 percent of the vote, just short of the 5 percent necessary to win seats in the Landtag.
In October 2008 the Left Party nominated Tatort
Tatort
Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss , crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF 2 in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland...
actor and activist Peter Sodann
Peter Sodann
Peter Sodann is a German actor, director and politician. He was the Left Party's nominee for the 2009 presidential election, but was not considered a serious candidate by the German media.-Early life:...
as their candidate for the 2009 presidential election
German presidential election, 2009
An indirect presidential election was held in Germany on 23 May 2009. The President of Germany was elected by the Federal Assembly, which is made up of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members nominated by the state Landtags....
. Since the German president is chosen by the Bundesversammlung
Bundesversammlung (Germany)
The Federal Convention is a special body in the institutional system of Germany, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President , either every five years or within 30 days of a president's resignation, death or removal from office.The Bundesversammlung includes the entire...
, consisting of all members of the Bundestag and an equal number of Bundesrat-selected delegates, Sodann did not win but he got 91 of the 1223 votes cast (The Left had 90 delegates).
Internal caucuses
The Left Party has a number of internal caucusCaucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
es, most often referred to as platforms
Platform (European politics)
Platforms, in European politics, are openly organized political factions within left-wing political parties. Examples include the Republican Communist Network, the Workers Unity Platform and the Solidarity Tendency, platforms within the Scottish Socialist Party; the Socialist Workers Platform and...
or forums.
- The Anti-capitalist Left (Antikapitalistische Linke) represents those critical of participation in coalition governmentCoalition governmentA coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
s. They believe that government participation should be dependent on a set of minimum criteria (including no privatizationPrivatizationPrivatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
s, no war involvement, and no cuts in social welfare spending). The grouping seeks to position the party firmly against any form of capitalism. Prominent representatives of this group are Sahra WagenknechtSahra WagenknechtSahra Wagenknecht is a German politician. She is a Member of the Bundestag, author, and a member of the National Committee of the Left Party. Since May 2010 she is deputy chairperson of Die Linke.- Early life :...
, Tobias PflügerTobias PflügerTobias Pflüger is a German politician and former Member of the European Parliament . He represented the Die Linke, part of the European Left and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs...
, Cornelia Hirsch, and Ulla JelpkeUlla JelpkeUrsula "Ulla" Jelpke is a marxist German journalist and politician. Jelpke is member of the German Bundestag where she is domestic affairs spokesperson for the party Die Linke and represents the party in the internal affairs committee and the legal affairs committee.A trained hairdresser and book...
.
- The Communist PlatformCommunist PlatformThe Communist Platform is an association within the German Left Party. Among the main goals of the KPF are the preservation and advancement of Marxist thought, other goals are improving the situation of the poor and battling racism. Its most prominent member is Sahra Wagenknecht, who was a member...
was originally formed as a tendency of the PDS. It is less critical of German Democratic Republic than other groupings, and it upholds orthodox Marxist positions. A "strategic goal" of the KPF is "building a new socialist society, using the positive experiences of real socialismReal socialismThe Real socialism is a political term, popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Soviet Union, in relation to the rapidly changing socioeconomic reality of the Eastern Bloc countries, faced with the sharply declining increments of growth and the need for economic reform...
and to learn from mistakes" Its primary leader is Sahra WagenknechtSahra WagenknechtSahra Wagenknecht is a German politician. She is a Member of the Bundestag, author, and a member of the National Committee of the Left Party. Since May 2010 she is deputy chairperson of Die Linke.- Early life :...
, who is on the National Committee of the Left Party. As of May 2008 the Platform had around 961 members —around 1% of the party's national membership.
- The Socialist LeftSocialist Left (Germany)The Socialist Left is a political caucus in the Left Party of Germany. It includes political viewpoints ranging from left Keynesianism and left social democracy to reform communism and Marxism. SL members share a common goal of orienting the Left Party firmly toward the labor movement.Socialist...
(Sozialistische Linke) was formed in August 2006 and includes keynesian economicsKeynesian economicsKeynesian economics is a school of macroeconomic thought based on the ideas of 20th-century English economist John Maynard Keynes.Keynesian economics argues that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes and, therefore, advocates active policy responses by the...
-leftists and reform communistsEurocommunismEurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
, as well as the revolutionary socialist current Marx21. The group seeks to orient the party toward the labour movementTrade unions in GermanyTrade unions have a long history in Germany, reaching back to the German revolution in 1848, and still play an important role in German economy and society...
. Many leaders of the Socialist Left were former members of the WASG. Socialist Left sympathizes with the Dutch Socialist PartySocialist Party (Netherlands)The Socialist Party is a democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. After the 2006 general election, the Socialist Party became one of the major parties of the Netherlands with 25 seats of 150, an increase of 16 seats. The party was in opposition against the fourth Balkenende cabinet...
and the Italian Communist Refoundation PartyCommunist Refoundation PartyThe Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
.
- The Emancipatory Left (Emanzipatorische Linke, Ema.Li) is a current that endorses libertarian socialistLibertarian socialismLibertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...
principles. It backs a decentralized society and support social movementSocial movementSocial movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s. Ema.Li's spokespersons are Julia BonkJulia BonkJulia Bonk is a Left Party politician in the Landtag of Saxony. Elected at age 18, she became the youngest member of a parliament in Germany.- Life :...
(member of parliament in Saxony) and Christoph Spehr, spokesman of The Left in BremenBremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
. Other representatives are the vice Chairwoman of the party Katja KippingKatja KippingKatja Kipping is a German politician. The daughter of a teacher and an economist, she went to school from 1984 to 1996, then she made her Abitur at a gymnasium in Dresden until 1997...
and Caren Lay.
- The Reform Left Network (Netzwerk Reformlinke) was originally formed in 2003 as a tendency in the PDS. It promotes social-democraticSocial democracySocial democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
positions and supports cooperation with the Social Democratic Party of GermanySocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
and the Alliance 90/The Greens. A prominent member of the network is Petra PauPetra PauPetra Pau is a member of The Left in the German parliament, the Bundestag. First elected in 1998, from 2002 - 2005 she was one of just two party representatives, having been directly elected as the representative of Berlin Marzahn – Hellersdorf, a working-class area of east Berlin...
.
- The Democratic Socialist Forum (Forum demokratischer Sozialismus) is a democratic socialistDemocratic socialismDemocratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
faction that was originally part of the PDS. It supports participation in state coalition governments and is programmatically close to the Reform Left Network.
In addition to the main platforms, a number of far-left groups have aligned with the Left Party and its predecessors, the PDS and WASG, including Linksruck
Linksruck
Left Shift was a Trotskyist group in Germany, which was the German affiliate of the International Socialist Tendency...
(now known as Marx21). The Trotskyist Socialist Alternative has also joined, but the applications of some of its leaders, including Lucy Redler
Lucy Redler
Lucy Redler is a German politician, Socialist Alternative activist, and member of the Left Party. From 2005 to 2007 Redler served on the executive committee of the Berlin section of the Labor and Social Justice List , and she was its chief candidate in the 2006 Berlin state elections...
, for party membership were initially rejected (Redler has since become a member). Der Funke, supporters of the International Marxist Tendency
International Marxist Tendency
The International Marxist Tendency is an international socialist organisation based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organisation since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its best known...
in Germany, pursues entrist tactics in Die Linke. Other left-wing groups, such as the German Communist Party
German Communist Party
The German Communist Party is a Marxist-Leninist party in Germany.-History:The DKP was formed in West Germany in 1968, in order to fill the place of the Communist Party of Germany , which had been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956...
(DKP), have formed local alliances with The Left but have not joined the party.
Literature
- David F. Patton. Out of the East: From PDS to Left Party in Unified Germany (State University of New York Press; 2011)
- Hubertus KnabeHubertus KnabeHubertus Knabe is a German historian, human rights activist and the scientific director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a museum and memorial in a notorious former Stasi torture prison in Berlin. Knabe is noted for several works on oppression in the former communist states of Eastern...
, Honeckers Erben. Die Wahrheit über Die Linke. Propyläen, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-549-07329-2