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Sahra Wagenknecht and Bernd Riexinger
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
The former party chairman of the Left, Bernd Riexinger, found sharp words for the ex-parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht at a party event.
The party-internal group “Anti-Capitalist Left” (AKL) from North Rhine-Westphalia invited Riexinger to a zoom conference on Monday evening to discuss Wagenknecht's bestseller “The Self-Righteous”.
The event was advertised with a modified quote from Wagenknecht about Riexinger, "whose name as the former chairman of the Left has rightly not been forgotten."
Wagenknecht had indirectly criticized Riexinger in her book, but did not name him by name, but wrote about a chairman, "whose name is rightly forgotten today."
Riexinger said at the conference that it was "extremely dangerous" that Wagenknecht was spreading in public that the left was paying too little attention to the social issue because it could get caught.
In the hour and a half discussion, Riexinger worked on Wagenknecht's book.
"Largely fact-free" and "stuffy-reactionary"
Wagenknecht carried out a "falsification of the facts" and reinterpreted the story when she blames the precarious situation of the lower social classes on the so-called "lifestyle lefts" in the book, who only care about anti-racism, gender issues and the fight against climate change. In fact, according to Riexinger, the neoliberal policy of the early noughties, for example by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, was the reason for social upheaval. “They weren't lifestyle leftists.” Schröder wouldn't have dealt with gender issues.
Wagenknecht also neglects the social struggles in the service sector, for example of shopkeepers or nursing workers, when they talk about the alleged neglect of industrial workers.
Optionally, Riexinger called Wagenknecht's theses "crazy", "adventurous", some were "quite nonsense", "completely wrong", "ordoliberal", "largely factual", "stuffy-reactionary" and a "poor analysis".
The fact that Wagenknecht rejects movements like Fridays for Future or "Indivisible" could be dangerous for the left because the party would have to join these movements.
He remembers a demonstration by "Indivisible", which Wagenknecht publicly rejected during her time as parliamentary group leader.
"That harmed us," said Riexinger.
Riexinger also cracked down on Wagenknecht's supporters in the party.
They would "lash out" when criticized, and would be "insulted and attacked" by them if one criticized Wagenknecht.
But Riexinger also said: "You and your circles are not in a position to create a new political formation."
Critic calls Wagenknecht's theses "fascist"
Even among the more than 90 comrades who took part in the Zoom conference, there was only criticism of Wagenknecht. Comrade Ursel Beck suspected that Wagenknecht wanted to split the party in a targeted manner. Jürgen Aust speculated that Wagenknecht had changed through her love affair with Oskar Lafontaine, that he had influenced her. Because Wagenknecht, as a member of the European Union, had other views. A man who called himself “Diethelm” on Zoom described Wagenknecht's theses as “fascist”, he believes that she was heading in that direction.
Riexinger, on the other hand, said that he found the word "fascist" exaggerated and called on the participants to lead the discussion in the party clearly "in order to create clarity in the party."
"We have to make it clear that we are not campaigning for Sahra Wagenknecht, but for a strong left," he advised the election stands.
Everything else will settle in time.
Wagenknecht's book caused a great stir in the party when it was published in April.
Some board members called for Wagenknecht's withdrawal as the top candidate in North Rhine-Westphalia for the federal election.
A party expulsion procedure requested by members has also been initiated.