Left: Amira Mohamed Ali and Dietmar Bartsch remain group chairmen

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Amira Mohamed Ali and Dietmar Bartsch

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Michael Kappeler / dpa

Dietmar Bartsch and Amira Mohamed Ali remain chairmen of the left parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

The MPs confirmed it at a meeting in Berlin.

Both received 76.9 percent of the vote, as the parliamentary group announced.

After the defeat of the left in the federal elections, speculation about a replacement of the previous parliamentary group was held (read more here).

But Mohamed Ali and Bartsch were then proposed for re-election by party leaders Janine Wissler and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow.

This procedure is provided for by the regulations of the left.

In the election on September 26, the left slipped from 9.2 percent in 2017 to 4.9 percent.

Although she missed the five percent hurdle, she is still represented in parliamentary groups in the new Bundestag because of three direct mandates.

The new parliamentary group still has 39 members - 30 fewer than in the previous legislative period.

Mohamed Ali had said before the vote that the left would have to fight for its existence in the new legislative period.

She predicted a difficult time for her group in the Bundestag for the next four years.

“We now have to do our important opposition work with significantly fewer resources.

That is a challenge.

To do this, we have to become even more efficient and concentrate on core issues. "

Since election night there had been controversial debate within the party about the causes of the defeat.

Frequently heard was the assessment that the voting behavior on the Afghanistan evacuation mission had cost voters.

The party line is that foreign deployments of the Bundeswehr are to be rejected as a matter of principle.

In the specific case, the majority of the MPs abstained, but a few also voted yes and others no.

as / AFP / dpa