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Janine Wissler: Left party leader announces renewed candidacy

2022-05-21T12:45:55.242Z


Despite a series of defeats, Janine Wissler wants to remain party leader of the left. The Hessin has declared her candidacy for the upcoming party conference. The party does not have to get stuck in the 5 percent hole.


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Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek / IMAGO

Left Chairwoman Janine Wissler has decided to stay.

She wanted to run again for party chairmanship at the Erfurt party conference at the end of June, the Hessian member of the Bundestag told ARD on Saturday.

After a series of defeats under her leadership, she wanted "to help us regain trust," Wissler explained.

In Erfurt, the party wants to re-elect its entire board and find a common course.

Wissler had previously left open whether she would like to defend her position.

Despite the crisis in her party, she sees chances of getting good results in elections in the future, Wissler said on Saturday at a state party conference of the left in Hanover.

“The situation is serious, but not hopeless.

We have it in our own hands.” There is potential for majorities for left-wing politics.

Her party, which is the only opposition from the left, is not stuck in the hole of 5 percent or less.

A fifth of people could basically imagine voting on the left.

For this, the party must emphasize its topic of social justice.

It is a noticeably more optimistic tone: only recently, the party leader saw the existence of the left at stake.

Most recently, the left failed to enter the parliaments in the three state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland.

In the federal elections last fall, she fell below the five percent hurdle and was only able to retain her parliamentary group thanks to three direct mandates she won.

In Lower Saxony, too, the left is currently not represented in the state parliament.

»Overcoming Polyphony«

In April, Wissler's co-chair Susanne Hennig-Wellsow resigned - under the impression of sexism allegations, which also affected Wissler's handling of the topic in her Hessian state association.

Wissler and Hennig-Wellsow only started as a management duo in February 2021.

Wissler announced that the cases would be processed.

There is also a dispute within the left about the position on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

Wissler recently admitted that "our criticism should have been louder" towards Russia, but he rejected the accusation that the party was "Putin's fifth column".

The left must clarify its position on the causes of the war in Ukraine as well as on arms deliveries to Ukraine, said Thuringia's Left Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow on the fringes of a state party conference on Saturday.

The left traditionally relies on a dual leadership of a West and an East German member.

The Saxon member of the Bundestag Sören Pellmann has so far been the only one to have expressed an interest in co-chairing.

Pellmann had won the third direct mandate in Leipzig and thus saved his party the status of a parliamentary group.

So far, he has not wanted to comment on a SPIEGEL report about unclear financial sources for his election campaign.

Pellmann is said to be close to Russia, and the controversial left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht spoke out in favor of him.

Janine Wissler told ARD that her party should "overcome this polyphony".

She called for a clear course as a "justice party that combines social and climate protection".

ak/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-21

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