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Party chairman Hennig-Wellsow: calls for jerk for the left
Photo: Andreas Gora / POOL / EPA
After the quarrels of the past week about the Saarland parliamentary group leader Oskar Lafontaine and the NRW top candidate Sahra Wagenknecht, the left-wing chairwoman Susanne Hennig-Wellsow called on the party executive committee that the party should come to its senses.
As those present report, she demanded that "our party must now be jolted".
She also sharply criticized the attempt by some members to expel Wagenknecht from the party.
She recalled the history of the political movement on process of elimination.
"Hundreds of thousands of people have been excluded from parties in the history of the left because of opinions and it is therefore more than right for us to set the bar very, very high," the party leader reportedly said.
"We can lose a lot if we continue like this, but we can gain a hell of a lot if we pinch our buttocks together and fight," says Hennig-Wellsow.
She now expects nothing less than that from all groups and members in the party.
The party is now facing a "fight for survival".
Co-federal chief Janine Wissler also called on the party to now argue about content and to refrain from personal attacks. In the discussion that followed, there was sharp criticism of Lafontaine, who last week called for people in Saarland not to vote for the left with the second vote. For example, the left-wing politician in Saxony-Anhalt, Wulf Gallert, and Julia Schramm, a member of the Bundestag parliamentary group, made negative statements.
But there was also criticism of the motion to expel Wagenknecht from the party.
A surprising number of people who are considered opponents of Wagenknecht spoke up and said that one had to deal with Wagenknecht in terms of content, that an elimination procedure was the completely wrong way.
One of these requests to speak was the member of the Bundestag, Niema Movassat, who had been particularly vehement against Wagenknecht in the past few weeks.
Exclusion proceedings also against Lafontaine?
In the next session, the Left is preparing its federal party conference for the coming weekend.
Several hundred pages of change requests are processed in this way.
The left wants to decide on its election program at the party congress.
The party is currently grappling with heated internal disputes.
An exclusionary process was initiated against Wagenknecht, some district associations in North Rhine-Westphalia do not want to hang up posters with her.
In the Saarland, his spouse Lafontaine is fighting a power struggle with the Saarland state chairman Thomas Lutze, whom his opponents accuse of wanting to stay in power by unfair means.
Lutze denies rumors in the party that an exclusionary procedure against Lafontaine could also be requested in Saarland.
“I will not initiate a process of elimination against Oskar Lafontaine.
Rather, I would be glad we could clarify that in a conversation.
He has my phone number, ”Lutze tells SPIEGEL.
For this, Lutze had already applied for an expulsion procedure against Astrid Schramm, a member of the state parliamentary group, an ally of Lafontaine, months ago. As they told SPIEGEL, they are still waiting for the results to be announced. Schramm is said to have uncovered inconsistencies in the state party that could burden Lutze. The prosecutor is investigating. So far, Lutze denies all allegations.
