New Wagenknecht party?
Politician calls for “popular left”.
Created: 07/01/2022, 20:25
By: Andreas Schmid
One, if not that, face of your party: Sahra Wagenknecht © RAINER UNKEL/IMAGO
Sahra Wagenknecht polarizes.
Now a new party does not seem out of the question.
“We will continue to discuss how in the fall,” she says to Merkur.de.
Erfurt/Berlin – The Left Party Congress is seven days old, but its aftermath is still noticeable.
A week after the meeting in Erfurt, a lot in the crisis-ridden party revolves around Sahra Wagenknecht.
The former faction leader was not present at all.
Party Congress of the Left: Wagenknecht as a loser?
Wagenknecht canceled the party conference due to illness.
From afar, the popular and controversial politician had to experience how her political ideas were crushed.
In an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA, Wagenknecht attacked party leader Janine Wissler and called for a "fresh start" at the top too: "We need fresh, convincing faces." Wissler should fail (57.5 percent).
Furthermore, a motion on left-wing foreign policy, which was largely initiated by Wagenknecht, was clearly rejected.
In it, the position on Russia should be softened linguistically.
Although the Wagenknecht camp also describes the Ukraine war as "violating international law", they also insist on integrating criticism of NATO and the USA into the party position.
The sentence "We strongly condemn Russia's criminal war of aggression" should also be removed.
New Wagenknecht party?
"Call for a Popular Left"
In an interview with the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
, Wagenknecht subsequently saw an "affront to a relevant part of the party, which was signaled at this party congress that it was no longer wanted".
You now have to think about the political future of the party.
"I think we will turn the call for a popular left into an organized network." Does that sound like a party?
"The party congress has expressly decided to
continue like this
," says Wagenknecht at the request of
Merkur.de
from IPPEN.MEDIA.
“We will agree on how we will react to this.” Nothing can be announced immediately.
"One consideration is to first
create a network based on the
call for a popular left and to discuss
how
this should be done at a larger conference in the fall ."
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New Wagenknecht party?
Gysi dismisses: "Illusions"
As is so often the case with the Wagenknecht case, these announcements are perceived divided within the Left Party.
Party grandee Gregor Gysi is skeptical.
"It's not that easy to split a party, and it's not that easy to start a new one either.
Some people are under illusions," Gysi wrote on Twitter.
The 74-year-old still has a lot of influence in the party.
Thanks to the direct mandate he won in Berlin, Die Linke still has a seat in the Bundestag.
The party had actually fallen below the five percent hurdle in the federal election.
Because a total of three direct mandates were obtained, the so-called basic mandate clause applied.
In the Wagenknecht camp, of course, you see things differently.
It is "everything open," says ex-Linke board member Ralf Krämer on Facebook.
He belongs to the Wagenknecht-affiliated party current Socialist Left.
"If we want to found a new party, as many as possible must do it together."