Migration-friendly course
Linke wants to set up activist Carola Rackete for the European elections
07/17/2023 2:02 p.m
The left nominates climate and refugee activist Carola Rackete as the top candidate for the 2024 European elections. The party is thus also sending a clear signal to parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht.
The captain and refugee helper Carola Rackete will be running for the left in the European elections next year. The party leadership announced on Monday that the activist would take second place on the European election list. Rackete is to run alongside Martin Schirdewan, who is currently the leader of the Left Party in the European Parliament and is running as the top candidate.
Rackete’s entry into the European Parliament is considered promising, according to a “Spiegel” report. The Left Party ended up with 5.5 percent in the 2019 election and has been at five percent in the nationwide polls for years. In addition, the left currently has five members of the European Parliament. Before things get started, however, the captain still has to be set up at the party conference of the left at the end of the year. The question of whether there will be counter-candidates is currently open, party circles said to “Zeit Online”. In the East German state associations in particular, there is said to be skepticism about the nomination.
Rackete nomination a statement against Wagenknecht?
Carola Rackete became internationally known when she arrived on the island of Lampedusa on June 29, 2019 with 53 refugees rescued from distress on the ship “Sea Watch”, despite a ban by the Italian authorities. Criminal proceedings followed, but were discontinued in 2021. The left chairmen are not only under pressure because of bad election results and current poll numbers. The escalating dispute with the former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht also causes resentment.
Rackete’s nomination is also a clear statement against Wagenknecht. This is clearly in favor of a stricter migration policy. Officially, the list for the European elections will only be drawn up at a left-wing party conference in Augsburg in mid-November.