Enlarge image
Hans Modrow, Chairman of the Council of Elders
Photo: Britta Pedersen/ picture alliance/dpa
In a letter to party leaders Janine Wissler and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, the chairman of the council of elders, the former head of government in the GDR, Hans Modrow, sharply criticized his party's course.
The letter was published in the newspaper "Junge Welt", which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified as left-wing extremist.
In it, Modrow criticizes what he sees as the dominant attitude in the party to want to form a government with the SPD and the Greens.
This is the result of years of misdevelopment in his party.
"When this process began and who is responsible for it is just as difficult to answer as the question of whether real socialism could have been saved after the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU in 1956 or with the Prague Spring of 1968," writes Modrow.
A restart is needed, which “cannot take place without personnel consequences”.
This should already be available in the summer at the party conference in Erfurt.
Modrow sees parallels to the SED in the situation of the left.
»The SED collapsed because the leadership followed its course complacently and arrogantly, undeterred and unimpressed and ignored what the critical base found offensive about it.
The end is known.«
Modrow warns against criticism of autocratic states
In addition, Modrow criticizes the fact that the East Germans are being pushed back: “I can't help but get the impression that the party, like the eastern part of the country, is now in West German hands.
Your representatives and allies set the tone.« In this context he recalls the roots of the party »and what generations have fought for«: the overthrow of capitalism.
"Onomatopoeia, Anglicisms and genders or the fight against the climate catastrophe do not overcome the social contradictions in bourgeois-capitalist society," says Modrow.
He also warns against criticism of autocratic states: "Anyone who takes the same tack as the capitalist critics of Russia and China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. objectively makes common ground with their declared economic and political opponents."
He wants to spare the party leadership with future letters because his strength is "used up," it says at the end of the letter.
The letter from the 93-year-old is likely to cause further unrest in the party.
In the weeks before, the Council of Elders had already expressed its incomprehension about the course taken by the current party leadership.
Dehm and Dağdelen block their own comrades
Since the catastrophic result in the federal elections in September last year, the left has been in a tough argument about its future direction. The argument tends to take place on social media. A tweet by ex-chairman Klaus Ernst has just caused internal friction, in which he called for a membership decision to re-elect the party leadership.
Individual left-wing politicians are now blocking each other on Twitter, such as ex-MP Diether Dehm and party executive Niema Movassat.
Movassat had attacked Dehm because he had called for the Robert Koch Institute to be merged with the lottery headquarters.
MEP Sevim Dağdelen, in turn, blocked her former party colleague Helin Evrim Sommer after she criticized Dağdelen for her arguments against compulsory vaccination.
Sommer was later insulted by former member of parliament Heike Hänsel via Twitter as "low-level". You have rarely read such a "stupid and slanderous comment from a comrade" as the one about Dağdelen, wrote Hänsel.
Dehm, Hänsel and Dağdelen are considered the most loyal supporters of the former group leader Sahra Wagenknecht.
They are also referred to internally as »Querfrontler« because some of the group around Wagenknecht feel the transition to right-wing conspiracy milieus is fluid.
till
