The change of power

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Kipping and Riexinger 2016 in Magdeburg

Goettingen. There is probably no party congress in the still young history of the left that was so formative, so momentous, so traumatizing as the meeting in Lower Saxony in the summer of 2012. It was the climax of a bitter power struggle between the two big wings, reformers and Party links.

The scenes from that time have burned themselves into the collective memory of the party: Gregor Gysi's speech about "hatred" among comrades. Oskar Lafontaine's tirade of "stupid talk". In the end: The international smirked, smacking winners and deeply hurt losers.

Dietmar Bartsch was one of the losers at the time. Lafontaine and his West German left wing troops had not only prevented the choice of the pragmatist. They literally humiliated Bartsch by organizing a majority for a hitherto little known trade unionist: Bernd Riexinger.

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Unexpected leadership duo: Kipping and Riexinger in Göttingen 2012.

At that time, Bartsch also lost because a candidate who, like him, came from the East prevailed on the board post reserved for women - and thus reduced his own chances in the proportionality logic of the left. Katja Kipping, 34 years old at the time, was also one of the pragmatists, but presented herself as a middle-class candidate, regardless of the wing battles.

From all this to the present day there have been injuries, mistrust and personal animosities. The two chairmen have also stayed: Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger. The thrown together underdog duo of yore was re-elected three times. Kipping and Riexinger have been in office for more than eight years. This means that they have been at the top longer than any other chairman of the major parties in Germany.

Kipping does not run again

This time is now coming to an end, that is now clear. On Friday, Kipping announced what had already been expected in the past few days: She will not run again at the next party conference on October 31 and November 1 in Erfurt.

"Intra-party democracy means that every office is a temporary office - and that's a good thing," wrote Kipping to the members of the party. It is correct that the statutes of the Left suggest a limit of the term of office to eight years. It is also true, however, that the calls for a new beginning had recently become louder and louder among the comrades. At least at the top of the party, Kipping has been said to have been interested in the parliamentary group chairmanship for years.

Your co-party leader Riexinger did not initially comment. However, it is very likely that he too will vacate his post. Riexinger has long since lost his position in the party.

On Monday, the two want to appear in front of the press together. It is already clear that your departure is a turning point, the end of an era that has changed the face of the left. Under Kipping and Riexinger, the left had turbulent years behind them, full of power struggles and disputes. The chairman's balance sheet: very mixed. Where is the party today?

• Election results: There were times when Kipping brought a target of 15 percent for the left into play. However, the comrades stayed a long way from that. The left with Kipping and Riexinger could not come close to the previous top result of 2009 with 11.9 percent - and that despite the weakness of the SPD. There were also a number of severe defeats: for example in the most recent European elections or in the decisions in Saxony and Brandenburg. On the other hand: in Berlin the left is part of the red-red-green coalition, in Thuringia it even provides the prime minister with Bodo Ramelow. In Bremen the comrades rule for the first time in a West German state.

• Members: At the end of 2019, the left had almost 61,000 members, just a little less than eight years earlier. That is definitely a success for the chairmen, after all, the party is shrinking sharply, especially in the East, given an outdated membership. Kipping and Riexinger have tried to make the left younger and more urban. With climate or socio-political issues, they increasingly addressed urban and green milieus. In this way they were able to compensate for the losses in the area. At the same time, however, the strategy also brought them accusations that the party was alienating itself from its classic constituency among workers and the unemployed.

• Profile: One thing Kipping and Riexinger haven't achieved for a long time - to give the left a clear identity in terms of content. Many fundamental questions have not been resolved to this day, disputes and directional decisions with formula compromises have been avoided. The relationship with the EU, the climate issue, the way in which immigrants are dealt with: it was often not clear to the general public what the left actually stood for. After all: on the controversial question of government readiness, the chairmen have recently taken a clearer path. Kipping in particular urged more aggressively than ever to prepare the left for a red-red-green alliance in 2021.

• Agreement: Kippings and Riexinger's arguments, especially with ex-parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht, dominated almost all debates in the party. In addition: under the two party leaders, the left has become very fragmented. The two once large wings have grown into a number of small left-wing and reform-oriented groups that sometimes forge purely tactical and thus unstable alliances. Requirements that make any content profiling difficult.

The left is now at a crossroads. Some comrades are hoping for a historical clarification at the party congress in Erfurt. The left should then unequivocally position itself as a government force - and say goodbye to its painstakingly cherished image as a protest party. Others fight against it. Everything is still open, the staff, the content.

Such a clear call for red-red-green, as drafted by leading comrades in a strategy paper a few weeks ago, is not the draft of the lead motion that is before SPIEGEL. At the weekend the paper will be discussed in the board. For the future, however, the question of who will succeed Kipping and Riexinger is likely to be more decisive.

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Favorite for the management position: Susanne Hennig-Wellsow

Various names of potential applicants are still circulating. Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, head of the Thuringian state and thus one of the architects of the left's success there, is obviously interested. Hennig-Wellsow is considered a pragmatist close to Kipping. You could form a double top with Janine Wissler from Hessen, the star of a part of the party left. This model was discussed a few days ago in a round of the East German state chairmen. There some people could make friends with Wissler.

Only: as a member of the controversial Trotskyist organization Marx 21, Wissler also has many opponents in the party. It would rather be opposed to the story of a left willing to govern. Therefore, the reformers could try to provide Hennig-Wellsow with a second pragmatist from the East: the former Federal Managing Director Matthias Höhn, for example. The parliamentary managing director Jan Korte is also considered a possible candidate - or even parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch.

And the party links from the former camp around Sahra Wagenknecht also want to have a say. You agreed on the current party vice-president Ali Al-Dailami a long time ago.

All of this shows that the centers of power may have shifted, some new staff are available. But the left remains a troubled party. Also eight years after Göttingen.