With the Left Party everything is as usual. After the crashing electoral defeat, which brought them to their absolute threshold in parliament with 4.9 percent and only three direct mandates, the answers and staff in the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus remain almost the same as before. The parliamentary group again decided in favor of Dietmar Bartsch and Amira Mohamed Ali in their election as chairperson – in other words, for continuity of personnel. At the same time, all sides announce a structured process of processing. But what exactly this should look like and, above all, in which political direction it should go, is not yet clear. No significant advance has come from any camp.
The opposing power blocs of the party executive and parliamentary group are still an obstacle. While the former is dominated by the more activist left-wing movement after the latest party congress, a majority in the parliamentary group comes from the old so-called horseshoe alliance of reformers and the left wing, to which Sahra Wagenknecht is close. She continues to play a prominent, but isolated role: Although she hardly takes part in meetings, she polarizes, as on the weekend in Anne Will’s show, with her positions on corona policy. She is the best-known figure of the left in the country and at the same time the least popular in her own ranks. An unresolved tragedy.
The smaller parliamentary group, at least, is now forced to form fewer working groups and to focus on: labor and social affairs, budget and finances, education and domestic and foreign policy. The parliamentary group chairmen put forward similar priorities in a paper for the exam last week in Leipzig. You speak of a “one piece” social opposition.
Fractional discipline, which was barely noticeable in the last vote on the deployment of the Bundeswehr at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan, will be the acid test. Only three dropouts are enough at any time to break up the volatile alliance and lose the parliamentary group status. This emergency also explains new alliances of convenience and the consistently good results for the new parliamentary group executive from different camps. So it could actually be that for a certain period of time a new center emerges that puts unity above diversity.
But unity alone will not be enough against the social democratic-progressive neoliberalism of the traffic light coalition. The left cannot rely on the shortcomings of the others, but should clarify crucial strategic questions in the coming years: What is the task of a socialist party in the 21st century, with whom does it make politics? The milieu debates, which on the one hand raise the neglected workers and on the other hand the movements to a myth, have so far done the party more harm than good.
In order to clarify these questions, individual members are now calling for an independent commission of experts in an online signature collection. It is not for the first time that the call for professional, independent processing has been loud. The impatience is palpable, and the party is already running out of time: A strategic realignment and a new personnel table should be completed in two years. In the spring of 2024, the next slump is imminent with the European elections, followed by the fateful elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in autumn 2024. By then, the party must have clarified its Eastern and European profiles.
This existential reorientation is certainly a medium-term one, but the political work begins right now. New members pour in with expectations, a strong opposition is urgently needed. A complete change of perspective is necessary: no ingratiation to the political center and the fantasy of wanting to be part of it. A clear assessment of the balance of power and which improvements the left can credibly implement for people. Do not understand governance as an end in itself or even for your own preservation, but only step in when your own strength allows it.
A party that does not thirst for media attention, but seeks recognition from its voters and not from the elites.
Overall, this means a self-confident party that takes itself seriously: a tough opposition that provokes and at the same time has the courage to represent the marginalized. The smaller faction and the shrunken apparatus are an opportunity to focus with scarcer resources on what defines the left: social issues.
She builds her own power base by consistently pursuing her issues and not slacking off, even if the general attention evaporates. That it shows the will to pursue a different style of politics that does not focus on internal power struggles or sensitivities, but on the interests and demands of its own base. A socialist party.
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