The decision of the left faction to disband on December 6th is a cause for sadness for the long-time faction manager Jan Korte. But: “At least we have now resolved a latent ongoing conflict.” Everything must now change for the left. “There is animosity and hostility in every party and in every faction. The difference with us is the personal relentlessness and this strange longing for doom,” he says in an interview with ntv.de.
ntv.de: Until recently you were parliamentary managing director of the Left Party. Are you happy that you don’t have to manage the faction’s dissolution?
Sahra Wagenknecht has left the Left along with nine other members of the Bundestag. The remaining 28 left-wing MPs are not enough for a parliamentary group. That’s why there will soon be one less parliamentary group in the Bundestag and two new groups.
(Photo: picture alliance / photothek)
Jan Korte: Happy is really the wrong category because, first of all, today is a very sad day. Firstly, politically: We have a crazy right-wing development in this country, and of all people the only left-wing opposition faction must decide to liquidate it. And secondly, it is also a sad day for me personally because this group, which I have been a member of for almost 18 years, has been a big part of my life.
Apart from the fact that the Left is losing its parliamentary group status: What will be different for the Left in the Bundestag if Sahra Wagenknecht and her supporters are no longer there?
The fact that we are no longer a parliamentary group means fewer resources and fewer staff, fewer rights in the Bundestag to shape the opposition. That was a bitter blow. I think it’s central that everything has to be different for us. The new group must try to turn this historic defeat of the left into a new departure. We need a new language, a new way of communication, and consensual personnel selection. We need to end this sick culture of talking about each other on Twitter. When a normal person sees us trashing each other, they say: I don’t want to have anything to do with people like that, and I certainly don’t vote for them. If we don’t radically change this, then there will be no future for the left. But I believe that the remaining 28 in the Bundestag and everyone else in the party understood that.
Could it be that it would be easier without the other ten?
At least we have now resolved a latent ongoing conflict. But it wasn’t just one solo player who left, but also nine others. This is something to think about. But to be clear, it is these ten who destroyed the faction. For us as a party, this means that we have to clarify a few strategic fundamental questions: Who were we founded for? Which language do we want to speak? How do we deal with the traffic lights? What does a modern, combative left opposition politics look like? How do we deal with the fact that our membership structure is changing? In the big cities, many great young people are joining the party, but elsewhere membership is thinning out. Like in my constituency, in Bitterfeld, Köthen and Bernburg. The people there have completely different problems.
And in which direction could this go?
It is obvious what our task is: We have to argue with young people about the social issue of climate protection. We have to make an offer to those who do not want to take part in this barbarization of refugee policy, and to those who feel a shiver run down their spines when a Social Democratic defense minister calls for military capability. We have to make policy for those who are exploited, who stand in front of the refrigerator section at Aldi on the weekend and think about whether they can use butter or the cheaper margarine, because otherwise they won’t get through the month. We need union anchoring, anchoring in the companies as well as in the climate movement or in refugee work. Short and precise: We make politics for everyone who is treated badly and humiliatingly. That is our task.
But what if Wagenknecht is right on the tactical level and the target groups you want to make policy for don’t match? Because there is also the left-wing vegan who would definitely not use butter.
You know, I don’t give a damn. I don’t care whether someone follows a vegan diet or, like me, wants to eat a nice Thuringian bratwurst in the canteen. What interests me is that we have a clear class compass again. Sahra Wagenknecht correctly described some of the problems in the history of the left. And then she draws the conclusion that she should form a coalition with the CDU in the East? You have to get to that first. And the way she talks about migrants – I’m out of there. This has nothing to do with the left. Anyone who plays the weak against the very weakest is doing the business of the rulers, to put it classically.
Sahra Wagenknecht is already speculating about coalitions with the CDU, but she was previously rather skeptical about working with the SPD and the Greens. Is it possible that a left without the Wagenknecht group is more capable of forming an alliance than the left with Wagenknecht?
I don’t know. I don’t define myself by the new Wagenknecht party. This has reached a level of personality cult… I have no idea whether those who take part now have a shrine in their living room with incense sticks in front of the Sahra picture. That is not my approach to politics. I define myself as a leftist through a program that, when in doubt, is always on the side of the weak, the excluded and the exploited and never plays them off against each other. This means, above all, that I am an internationalist.
Does that mean specifically?
I fight for the exploited in the textile factories in Bangladesh and feel for these people just as much as I fight and feel for the saleswoman at KiK or in the supermarket. Part of it is missing from Wagenknecht.
You have already spoken about the fact that there were significant atmospheric difficulties in the group. Was the division more atmospheric or more content-driven?
I think it’s a mix. But there is animosity and hostility in every party and in every faction. The difference with us is the personal relentlessness and this strange longing for doom. I don’t know if a few people listened to too much Wagner. There is no other party where you can have your disputes publicly in this way. If we want to get back on our feet, this unculture must be stopped.
Are there any of the ten people that you say it’s good that they’re gone?
There are a few in particular who I am very sorry to see leaving, and who I have worked closely with for many years. I really regret that they went this route. Well, and of course there are some who I have always considered politically difficult and who did not necessarily contribute to the electoral success of the Left and will not contribute to other parties either.
Sahra Wagenknecht used to represent the left on talk shows and fill the halls. Who can or should do that in the future?
To put it in classic left-wing terms: The strength must now come from the collective. We have to look at who has what skills – who can address whom, who has rhetorical qualities, who can develop good strategies, who can write well. And we have very good people. Take Sebastian Walter, the parliamentary group leader and top candidate in Brandenburg. This is an excellent guy, respected and rhetorically brilliant. In Berlin, where we ruled for many years, there are people like Klaus Lederer. In Saxony-Anhalt Eva von Angern, in Bremen our Senator Kristina Vogt, in Thuringia our Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow – you can’t be more popular in state politics. In Saxony we have great top candidates in Susanne Schaper and Stefan Hartmann. And we also have good people here in the Bundestag. We now have to use this and systematize it. By the way, we still have our secret weapon: Gregor Gysi.
You have a case of beer with a journalist from the taz betthat Sahra Wagenknecht will not found a new party. Have you already paid off your betting debts or are you waiting until the founding party conference?
Not redeemed yet, but it’s obvious that I’ve lost. The crate of beer is drunk empty.
Hubertus Volmer spoke to Jan Korte