8.8% of the votes and 30,000 new members — what way forward?
In Sunday’s Federal elections (February 23), the Left Party entered powerfully into the Bundestag (German national parliament), after being at 3% in the polls just two months ago. It has become a party of big cities, young people and women. It is the strongest party among first-time voters, the strongest party in the “junior election” of those under 18 years old in schools, and the strongest party in Berlin. The party won six instead of the expected three constituencies, including Berlin-Neukoelln in West Berlin. No polling institute thought it would be possible for Ferat Kocak of the Left Party to win this constituency. But even more important than the election result is the more than 30,000 new members who have joined the Left Party, many of whom are active and motivated to resist the new CDU-led government.
The election campaign of the Left Party was active and dynamic. Members and supporters knocked on over half a million doors and had hundreds of thousands of conversations. In Berlin-Neukoelln alone, 100,000 households were visited and 9,000 people pledged to vote for Die Linke.
The party’s membership has changed within a few months. The Left Party is young, activist, and female. Such a rapid and comprehensive organizational drive has never before occurred in the history of the West German left. There are parallels with Bernie Sanders’ campaigns in the United States in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries and with the influx into the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Above all, it is the whip of reactionary developments that is driving young people to get organized on the left. Trump 2.0, the rise of the far-right AfD, the shift to the right of establishment politics and the demolition of the “firewall” by the Merz CDU were the shocks that are pushing many to organize.
New members of the Left Party seem to have drawn the right conclusion from the huge but unsuccessful protests against the AfD in early 2024: it is not enough just to be against the far right, there also has to be an alternative from the left. They have also understood that the social-democratic SPD and the Greens are no protection against the shift to the right: they have paved the way for it with their policies and have themselves adopted right-wing positions including on the issue of migration. The disappointment of the “Fridays for Future” (mass protest movement against the climate emergency) generation with the Greens, who have capitulated to capital on climate policy, has also played a role.
Reactionary shocks
“Until now, we Gen Z and young millennials, at least in the big city, thought that all of this was a given: being against racism and for living together peacefully. Then we realized that all this is at risk, that we have to do something,” said a new Die Linke member from Cologne, describing her motives for getting involved.
In recent years, it has superficially appeared as if everything was moving to the right internationally. However, International Socialist Alternative and SAV have pointed out that what was taking place was a polarization, but that the right pole was clearly recognizable in contrast to the left. There were certainly signs of left-wing politicization, in the climate movement, in feminist protests on 8 March, and in anti-fascist demonstrations. However, only a few limited successes were achieved through left-wing engagement, most notably the strikes in the hospitals for a collective agreement on staff allocation and the coming together of the climate movement and trade unionists for the #wirfahrenzusammen or “We Ride Together” campaign.
At the party level, things went downhill. The Left Party was paralyzed by the disputes with the “left-wing conservative” wing around Sarah Wagenknecht. Her departure and the founding of the BSW with its racist and divisive politics ultimately cleared the way for the Left Party to become recognizable again.
Wagenknecht has attacked the Left Party as only mobilizing “academics” from a “left-wing bubble” or “bizarre minorities”, meaning queer and trans people, and would certainly describe the new members as not belonging to the working class. In reality, the new active members are members of the working class — mostly with some higher education. The areas of healthcare, education, culture and art, public service, IT and media are strongly represented, but the presence of industrial workers, parcel delivery workers or cleaning staff is less common.
Open questions
The party got a lot of things right: a focus on core social issues such as housing; clear — if politically limited — campaign posters; investment in social media; and candidates, both at the top of the party’s list and in constituencies, who were able to appeal to younger people. The door-to-door method meant that thousands of new activists were given the chance to directly communicate with others in their community instead of just hanging up posters or passively clapping at rallies.
The 30,000 new members represent a second chance for the Left Party. They can provide the critical mass needed to successfully wage campaigns and social struggles, and to push for a broader base in workplaces, neighborhoods, universities and schools, which is urgently needed in view of the coming attacks on social and democratic rights by a CDU-led government.
But can only be successful if the party’s political weaknesses are overcome. Wagenknecht was not the only problem the party had. The conflict with her has masked other unresolved conflicts. After she left, the will for unity was so strong that some issues were simply no longer discussed.
“Don’t mention the war” could be a motto of this election campaign. The party rejects arms deliveries to Ukraine, but allows well-known representatives — such as the Member of the European Parliament, Rackete — to speak out in favor of them. According to a party conference resolution, Die Linke is in solidarity with the protests against the massacre in Gaza, but different positions are repeated time and again.
The party often does not dare to speak out against the agitation of the establishment, which, from the Greens to the AfD, unanimously defames opposition to Israel’s wars as “anti-Semitism”. There are exceptions — the Left Party in Berlin-Neukölln has taken a clear stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza, as has former party leader, Janine Wissler. But the overall picture is, to put it mildly, unclear. The Left Party should not succumb to the illusion that these issues can be ignored. After the election which has been dominated by the shift to the right, the question of militarism, war and armament will hit the agenda with full force. If the party continues to duck out of it, this will lead to disappointment.
The first test could come quickly: the CDU/CSU and SPD need a two-thirds majority to relax the debt brake. In general, it would make sense to remove this neoliberal constraint on spending from the constitution. But under the current circumstances, the debt brake would be relaxed primarily to finance a gigantic arms build-up. The Left Party cannot go along with this. Without simultaneous investment in affordable housing, in education and in the climate-friendly restructuring of transport while freezing the arms budget, the Left Party cannot vote to approve this.
Build an opposition or join the government?
Even before the Wagenknecht split, the party was teetering on the brink of crisis because its participation in governments and its adaptation to pro-capitalist parties, the SPD and Greens, had made it part of the establishment in the eyes of many voters. This effect was very strong in the eastern federal states. The party was in government in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Thuringia, and there was hardly any noticeable difference between it and the establishment parties. If there are no alternatives from the left, it is easier for the far right to profit from the discontent.
Currently, there is little talk of Die Linke government participation due to a lack of opportunity to do so. However, in Bremen, Die Linke continues to close clinics and was unpopular with many trade unionists before its recent rise. As in the early years of its existence, the question of where to go from here arises for Die Linke: towards a fighting, oppositional, socialist, working class party with a clear anti-establishment profile and an orientation towards movements and social struggles, or towards being a parliamentary junior partner for the SPD and the Greens, as part of an imagined but unreal “left camp”?
In the party apparatus and among the long-standing members, there are still supporters of the idea of becoming a recognized part of the political establishment. Many new members are likely to be open-minded and undecided on the issues of imperialism and government participation, and interested in both activism and debate. Marxists are therefore called upon to intervene in the upcoming discussions in the party and to evaluate the experiences of around 20 years of Die Linke.
In the resistance against social cuts, militarization and a shift to the right, we need a fighting socialist party that is fundamentally different from the establishment parties. A party that is not focused on parliament, but on organizing resistance from below. A party that has no illusions in regulating capitalism, but that fights for a different type of society.
30,000 people have voted with their feet and are reclaiming the Left Party for themselves because an instrument against the shift to the right, social cuts and militarism is urgently needed. The task now is to make this tool usable. This will not happen by itself; it will not be an easy fight and the outcome is not certain. But it is worth it.
A Polarized Country
The election results in Germany show a massive polarization in society: between East and West, male and female voters, different ages, countryside and cities. All of these camps were mobilized, with the highest participation in an election since German unification in 1990 with 82.5% taking part. The extreme right AfD were able to mobilize 1.86 million former non-voters plus 2 million former conservative and liberal voters. The Left Party got the votes of 320,000 who abstained in the election in 2021 plus 1.2 million from the SPD and Greens.
The Left Party emerged overall as the party of the youth and got 26% of those who voted for the first time, followed by the AfD with 19%. This was even sharper in the East, with 34% for the left vs 32% for the extreme right, literally a standoff at the ballot box. Only 23% of youth in the East voted for parties which had existed in Western Germany before 1990. Among all age groups “Western parties” got 39% in the East, showing a massive alienation from the political and economic system imposed by West German companies and politicians after unification.
The Left Party was also the strongest in the “junior election” in schools among youth between 12 and 17, getting 25.3% nationwide and up to 40% in many schools in the big cities.
While the Left Party got up to 30% of the vote in inner city areas in Cologne, Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin, the AfD got 38.6% in the federal state of Thuringia and 37.3% in Saxony, with some constituencies giving them over 40% and even up to 50–60% in some smaller towns. The AfD is strongest among middle aged voters between 35 and 55, especially among manual workers. Among older men in the countryside the Left Party only got 3% of the vote, but 35% of young women in cities voted for them.
The overall election result, with the conservative CDU/CSU being the strongest party (28.5%) doesn’t give a clear picture of this polarization. It is softened by the demographic factor. 42% of the electorate is 60 or older and those voters are much more likely to vote for the old centre parties CDU/CSU and SPD.
Six Ideas On The Way Forward For The Left Party
1 Education & Debate
Without a theoretical and historical understanding, the multiple crises and abrupt turns in politics today cannot be understood and activism cannot be sustained for long. The Left Party should be a place for learning and discussing things together. What is fascism and how can it be defeated? Why are we experiencing a new age of imperialism? Can there be capitalism without patriarchy and racism? How does the economy work? A culture of debate must be developed at party conferences and local meetings. Instead of meaningless formulaic compromises, controversies should be debated openly, with majority decisions — and the opportunity for the minority to continue to represent their position.
2 Building on strengths: Sinking roots in workplaces and neighborhoods
The party has many members in the health and education sectors. Some of them already have experience in struggle, for example from the strikes in daycare centers and for a collective agreement to reduce the workload in hospitals. The next step would be to organize workplace groups and build militant cores that can make a difference in workplace and collective bargaining disputes. The experiences from the door-to-door campaign combined with a clear program on the rent issue could be built on to create a nationwide network for capping rents and expropriating the real estate companies. A strong political program, organizing at the neighborhood level, and advice for tenants should all flow together.
3 Making a difference: No privileges
For years, many officials clung to their positions. Holding seats as members of parliament and local councils became an end in itself. Salaries were not capped, and even Left Party MPs earned far more than the average wage earner. Now there are steps in the right direction: a limit of €2,800 per month has been set for party leaders’ pay — the average salary — and they will donate the rest. Some candidates for the Bundestag, such as Ferat Kocak in Berlin-Neuköllln, have also agreed to limit their parliamentary salaries. This should not be a voluntary action by individuals, but should be set as a binding rule. Furthermore, elected party positions should be time limited. We don’t need a small class of political professionals — there are enough members who can take on these tasks. It should not be elected officials and full-time employees who dominate party conferences, but ordinary members. To remain credible, the party must be radically different from establishment parties, whose purpose is to distribute influence and privileges among their bureaucrats.
4 Sound the alarm on Merz’s coming attacks
It is foreseeable that a CDU/CSU-led government will launch a series of attacks, including things like attacks on social welfare, steps towards army conscription, social cuts while simultaneously rearming, and restrictions on democratic rights (gender self-identification law, rolling back cannabis legalization, etc.). Time and again, representatives of big business talk about targeting the right to strike or sick pay. The new party structures can take the initiative locally and nationally to react quickly and flexibly to Merz’s attacks, and offer an organizational framework and a political program to make the resistance effective.
5 Opposition & class struggle
The left has no future if it participates in capitalist crisis management, only if it advocates a fundamentally different — socialist — system. It should draw a clear line between itself and the establishment parties. The Left Party is needed in the class struggle — but not for cheerleading and passive support of the trade unions in general. The leadership of the DGB trade unions has no strategy against wage theft and job destruction. IG Metall recently proved this at VW. There it accepted the “socially acceptable” destruction of 35,000 jobs without a fight. The task of the left is to stand by the side of workers who criticize this collaboration with management and try to organize and fight against it.
6. Resistance against militarism and social cuts
We are experiencing a new age of imperialism. All capitalist powers are preparing for war. “Capitalism bears war within itself like clouds bear rain.” (Jean Jaurès, French socialist) It is crucial that the left in all countries takes a position against their own ruling classes and against any participation in war. The huge rearmament program in Germany will be paid for by cuts in social services, education, health and climate programs. This is an opportunity for the Left Party. We must prepare ourselves for resistance to social cuts, which must be inseparably linked to antimilitarism. The many young members of the Left Party can take the resistance into their schools. They can protest against the preparation of future generations for war, against the Bundeswehr (German army) in schools and universities, and against compulsory military service.
