“Strengthen the political right”
Bartsch warns Wagenknecht against founding a party
08/07/2023, 12:20 p.m
Those who are said to be dead live longer, at least that’s how Left Party leader Bartsch sees it. After his co-chairman Mohamed Ali announced his resignation, Bartsch called on his party to unite. The left has already freed itself from a low.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch called on his party’s MPs to unite after his co-chairman Amira Mohamed Ali announced that he would step down. “The step was not surprising for me. We will carry out the task assigned to us by the voters, to be the social opposition, with great determination, as we have done so far as a parliamentary group,” Bartsch told the “Rheinische Post”. and the “General-Anzeiger”.
For the time being, Bartsch leaves open whether he will stand for office again in the board elections at the beginning of September. When asked about this on Deutschlandfunk, he said: “You will also be informed of this decision shortly.” There are talks about this.
He can understand Mohamed Ali’s decision to a certain point, although not every point of criticism. “We will act together, and what my role is will be decided promptly,” said Bartsch. Mohamed Ali had announced on Sunday that she would not run again for the post of parliamentary group leader. She justified this primarily with the way the party leadership dealt with the member of the Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht.
“Too many internal problems turned to the outside”
Bartsch told the newspapers that the left had “exposed too many internal problems for too long”. The old rule applies: A party that argues is not elected. “We felt that,” said the group leader. “We’ve lost some of the roots in the East that made us stand out. But we’ve already been declared dead twice, in 1990 and again in 2002. Just like back then, we have to work hard to get out of the deep.”
On the question of whether this should happen together with Wagenknecht, Bartsch said that they had to “decide for themselves”. Wagenknecht has fallen out with the party leadership around the chairmen Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan and is considering founding his own party. Wagenknecht wants to make a decision before the end of the year. Polls suggest a Wagenknecht party’s chances of success.
Bartsch said: “In my view, any thinking about a possible new party is wrong because it only strengthens the political right. I will fight for us to remain a parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and for there to be an influential left in Germany.”