The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

"It's worse than ever": the left is threatened with a final scandal about Wagenknecht - is the parliamentary group falling apart?

2022-09-20T14:33:16.523Z


"It's worse than ever": the left is threatened with a final scandal about Wagenknecht - is the parliamentary group falling apart? Created: 2022-09-20Updated: 2022-09-20 16:24 With her highly controversial speech in the Bundestag, Sahra Wagenknecht split the left. Prominent party resignations and resignation calls followed. Is there an uproar today? Berlin – Sahra Wagenknecht is not only the daz


"It's worse than ever": the left is threatened with a final scandal about Wagenknecht - is the parliamentary group falling apart?

Created: 2022-09-20Updated: 2022-09-20 16:24

With her highly controversial speech in the Bundestag, Sahra Wagenknecht split the left.

Prominent party resignations and resignation calls followed.

Is there an uproar today?

Berlin – Sahra Wagenknecht is not only the dazzling star of the left, but also one of the most controversial politicians in her party.

The East German repeatedly opposes the majority opinion of her own comrades - most recently in her Russia speech in the Bundestag plenary session in early September.

This Tuesday, September 20th, there could be a scandal: The Left Party in the Bundestag is meeting for a faction meeting.

Eight MPs submitted a motion before the meeting to prevent appearances like Wagenknecht's in the future - speeches that do not reflect the party line.

It is unclear whether a majority of left-wing MPs will support the motion and thus further isolate Wagenknecht.

The collapse of the parliamentary group could threaten.

"I appeal to everyone to stay and not to play with attempts to split, but anyone who wants to leave the parliamentary group or party should do so now," said parliamentary director Jan Korte of the dpa in the run-up to the parliamentary group meeting.

"I expect everyone who stays to concentrate fully on our job together." Party chairwoman Janine Wissler did not rule out further exits from the party either.

Explosive: If three or more of the 39 MPs left, the left would no longer be a parliamentary group and would lose money and political influence.

Wagenknecht speech in the Bundestag: AfD clapped, party colleagues burst their collars

In her highly controversial speech, Wagenknecht called the traffic light government the "stupidest government in Europe" because of the sanctions against Russia.

Germany has launched an "unprecedented economic war against our most important energy supplier," ranted Wagenknecht, the only left-wing representative at the lectern that day.

The sanctions against Putin must be lifted, she demanded.

Germany needs cheap energy from Russia.

The left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht last week in her controversial speech in the Bundestag.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa

Wagenknecht - formerly leader of the parliamentary group of the left, today only normal members of parliament - thus opposed the position of the party leadership.

The AfD applauded her words - and many comrades burst their collars.

Mutual allegations followed, prominent members left the party in a dispute.

After Wagenknecht's scandalous speech: will there be a split at the parliamentary group meeting?

"I predict: The parliamentary group will stay together," said parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch in the run-up to the forward-looking parliamentary group meeting of the left

.

But many others are sure that this time it's going to be a showdown.

Insiders told the dpa news agency that it was enough.

There is talk of splitting the left or of disintegration.

One thing is clear: the meeting should be very busy.

also read

There is rumbling in Putin's empire: after Kadyrov's threat, the Kremlin spokesman's response gives a deep insight

Putin's separatists are calling lightning referendums - has Medvedev already explained the calculation?

One of the people who wants to prevent further scandalous appearances by Sahra Wagenknecht is ex-party leader Bernd Riexinger.

He told the dpa news agency: "You have to make a kind of decision.

This muddling through, as parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch does, will no longer work.” A clarification is needed: is the left “modern peace party” or a “rather left-wing conservative, populist party”?

Comrades or Opponents?

From left: Left leader Janine Wissler, parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch, Sarah Wagenknecht and former parliamentary group leader Bernd Riexinger.

© Imago

Sahra Wagenknecht has been provocative on the left for years - be it about refugees or Corona

Shootings by Wagenknecht and the resulting conflicts have been going on for "six or seven years," says Riexinger.

Wagenknecht already represented his own line in migration policy, then in Corona policy.

In the federal election campaign, she drove her own party into the parade with a critical book.

After the most recent federal party conference in June, she sneered at the newly elected party leaders: "Never change a losing team."

The latest dispute hits the left in a situation that actually seemed favorable for them.

The left governs in some federal states, in Thuringia it provides the prime minister with Bodo Ramelow, and sees itself as having arrived in the system to a large extent.

Current surveys even see them at five to seven percent from the FDP.

Probably because it was able to benefit from pressing social issues such as inflation and the energy crisis, which are traditionally left main issues.

The top personnel of the AfD: coming and going

View photo gallery

Dispute in the Left Party: does Sahra Wagenknecht leave voluntarily?

The Bonn political scientist Frank Decker sees the situation of the party since Wagenknecht's speech in the Bundestag dramatically: "It has never been so bad," he described to the dpa.

Wagenknecht deliberately provoked the dispute and showed no willingness to compromise.

"I think it's only a matter of weeks before she will leave the party or that she will be told to leave." Signatures for Wagenknecht's exclusion from the parliamentary group have already been collected, including the parliamentary group leaders Bartsch and Amira Mohamed Ali, those who had allowed the speech were asked to resign.

If Wagenknecht left the party, that would not only be a relief, but also a bitter pill for the left.

The 53-year-old regularly ranks among the ten most popular German politicians, no representative of the left is so well known and sits on TV talk shows so often.

But it would also be bitter for Wagenknecht, because she would then lack the party's sounding board.

With her own movement "Get Up", which she founded in 2018, she failed.

Some on the left therefore believe that it will remain despite everything.

She herself only said to the

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

last week : "I am currently a member of the left."

(dpa/smu)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-20

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-04T12:00:58.801Z
News/Politics 2024-02-19T19:20:53.656Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.