The left has again lost numerous members in the course of the first nine months of this year. At the end of September, Die Linke had 61,055 members nationwide, as can be seen from a list of the party that is available to SPIEGEL. At the end of 2018, 62,016 people were members of the party, at the end of the first half of 2019 there were still 61,276.
The loss of trust becomes even clearer when you look back at 2009. Ten years ago, 78,046 people were left members; in 2013 there were 63,757.
THE MIRROR
The left loses especially in the eastern German states, where its membership is significantly older than in western Germany. Even in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony, where the state parliament was elected in 2019, the number of members has shrunk from quarter to quarter since the turn of the year. In contrast, the party gained members in some West German states such as Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia.
"In the nineties, our main task was to lobby for the east," party leader Katja Kipping told SPIEGEL about the strategic direction of the left. "Then Die Linke became the anti-neo-liberal defense project against Hartz IV. Both are still important, but it must now be supplemented by a modern socialist project for the future."
Dietmar Bartsch, parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, recommended that his party focus on its core issues. "The left must first of all talk about social security and cohesion," he told SPIEGEL.
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