Hoping for 10 percent plus - Linke starts online party conference

Three months before the general election, the polls are bad for the left.

She wants to finalize her election program this weekend and hopes for a new impetus for the election campaign.

Berlin (dpa) - Under the impression of weak polls and internal party disputes, the Left is starting a two-day online party conference today.

At the delegates' meeting, the party wants to determine its positions for the federal election campaign and decide on an election program.

A 120-page draft from the party executive committee is available for debate and vote.

A number of amendments had been received in advance.

Bartsch optimistic despite low poll numbers

Top candidate and parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch remains optimistic that a double-digit result is possible in the election.

A “first-class election program” will be adopted, said Bartsch of the German press agency.

"I am very confident that this weekend will generate a dynamic that will ultimately lead to a double-digit election result."

In surveys, the left was recently only between six and seven percent.

In the 2017 federal election it reached 9.2 percent.

Bartsch's co-top candidate and party leader Janine Wissler described failure at the five percent hurdle as “not realistic”.

The hoped-for surge in the polls has not materialized since the end of February, when Wissler and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow were elected new party leaders of the left.

Internal party disagreement

Most recently, the left even had to record heavy losses in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. In the east it was always traditionally strong. Now the party wants to focus on East German issues again, such as the equalization of pensions and wages. "Despite the commitment of individuals, we have neglected the topic, but it is still topical," said Bartsch of the Berlin newspaper "nd.DieWoche". Wissler admitted in the "Rheinische Post" that her party had appeared too many voices. That will be changed now.

In addition to the polls, the left is also troubled by internal party disputes.

Several members have requested that party celebrity Sahra Wagenknecht be expelled.

In her current book, “Die Self-Righteous”, the latter accuses left-wing parties of having lost sight of social issues and of alienating traditional voters with low incomes with gender, climate and organic food debates.

Before the party congress, the party and parliamentary leaders tried to put out the fire immediately, wrongly called the exclusion proposal against Wagenknecht and appealed to unity.

Wagenknecht continues to be controversial

Wissler told the “Rheinische Post”: “Sahra Wagenknecht asks a legitimate question, namely how we can reach more people again.

But I do not share your analysis that the left has distanced itself from the social question. "Wagenknecht told the editorial network Germany (RND):" We have to concentrate on us being a lot more people as a reliable force for social equilibrium and

cohesion perceive. "The former parliamentary group leader added:" With all the differences, one must not forget that the Left is the only party in the Bundestag that is guaranteed not to approve a pension at 68 or any political measures that ultimately increase the corona costs Pass on low and normal wage earners. "

On the agenda: debt brake, minimum wage and rent cap

At the party congress it will now be about content: Bartsch named a major tax reform, "the hard work noticeably relieved", a reform of the pension so that everyone - including civil servants and members of parliament - pay into the pension fund and take measures as the main issues of the left in the election campaign against climate change, "without constantly ripping off consumers on heating, electricity or gas stations". The left wants to make an offer to “the real top performers in the country”: “The majority of them earn too little and pay too much.”

The draft for the election program includes: 

- Abolition of the debt brake

- a property levy to finance the corona costs

- a four-day working week with full

wages

- additional holidays

- a minimum wage of 13 euros

- 500 euros more basic salary for care workers

- a minimum pension of 1200 euros

- a rent cover for the whole of Germany

- free public transport for everyone

- a ban on domestic flights under 500 km

- a transfer of "

public

services" (water, energy, hospitals, care, post, telecommunications) in public ownership

- the dissolution of NATO

- a long-term abolition of secret services

- a legalization of cannabis

Attitude to foreign missions is debated

When it comes to the climate issue, which is coming back with power as the corona pandemic subsides in Germany, the left attaches great importance to the phrase “socio-ecological”: Measures against the climate crisis should be taken in such a way that it affects those least financially who are already little to have.

Discussions are to be expected at the party congress about how strongly the party should position itself on climate protection.

There should also be debates in foreign policy.

Some in the party would like to soften the left's strict no to foreign deployments and at least make military deployments possible if there is a mandate from the United Nations.

A corresponding motion to vote has been submitted.

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