Paper for negotiations: Linke presents plans for red-green-red


Paper for negotiation
Linke presents plans for red-green-red

The Left Party is calling for an increase in the minimum wage as well as a nationwide rent cap: According to a report, the party wants to present an “immediate program”, a plan for a possible alliance with the SPD and the Greens. When it comes to foreign policy, she leaves out a much debated topic.

In the past few days of the Bundestag election campaign there was a lot of talk about the left: about its stance on NATO, about its abstention from the vote on the evacuation mission to Afghanistan – about its foreign policy self-image in general. While the CDU and CSU, along with Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, are warning of the Left Party’s participation in government, the top candidates from the SPD and the Greens, Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock, are having a hard time ruling out a red-green-red alliance.

Now the left obviously wants to determine the debate about itself more strongly again. As the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” reports, the party wants to present an eight-page “immediate program” for possible government participation next Monday. The paper is intended as a signal to the outside and inside, said co-chair Susanne Hennig-Wellsow the paper. Inwardly, it should show: “Now it’s getting serious. But you don’t have to worry, we have that under control.” Outwardly it underlines: “We have a plan, we know how to do it, we are prepared and you can count on us.”

The paper, which according to “FAS” is to be presented by the left-wing top candidates Janine Wissler and Dietmar Bartsch and which is available to the newspaper, contains several key points for possible coalition negotiations with the SPD and the Greens. These include: an increase in the minimum wage, the abolition of Hatz IV, an increase in pensions, basic child benefits and a nationwide rent cap.

Not a word about NATO

According to the report, the party also wants to provide information about its foreign policy ambitions. Foreign missions of the Bundeswehr should be ended, arms exports stopped and the defense budget left at the level of 2018. Striking: While the party calls for the abolition of NATO in its election manifesto, the defense alliance does not appear in the “immediate program”, according to “FAS”. Last but not least, SPD candidate Scholz recently made a commitment by the left to NATO a prerequisite for a joint government.

Furthermore, the party would require at least two ministries in coalition negotiations, the report says. The Ministry of Labor, but also the health and education departments, are named as possibilities. “Many people are in favor of majorities without the Union and the FDP,” the newspaper quotes from the paper.

“When, if not now?”

“The window is as wide open as never before. When, if not now? ”, Said Hennig-Wellsow of the“ FAS ”in relation to a coalition with the SPD and the Greens. It is “the first time in the history” of the left that the party is seriously preparing for explorations. The leader of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Amira Mohamed Ali, said: “This is now a real possibility again, and of course this is being discussed in my party.”

According to “FAS” there were two meetings between the chairmen of the SPD and the Left Party in early summer. “The question of a coalition will be decided later by the party leaders,” said deputy left-wing leader Martina Renner the paper. “I’m not sure whether Scholz and Baerbock have an interest in governing with the left. But I know both of them that the shop behind them already wants, ”said Hennig-Wellsow.

According to the current trend barometer from ntv and RTL, a red-green-red alliance would at least be mathematically possible today. The SPD, the Greens and the Left would therefore have a slim majority of 402 seats. According to the poll and projections, 392 MPs are needed to form a new government.

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