New Left Party leadership wants to stand up for East Germany

The new leadership of the Left Party in the Bundestag wants to make a special commitment to East Germany and demand concrete improvements to wages and pensions. "For us, the East is the heart of this party," said the new group chairman Sören Pellmann in Berlin on Tuesday. A strategy paper with perspectives for the East in 2030 is in preparation. Co-chair Heidi Reichinnek emphasized that the Left Party remains the "voice of the East", but is not purely an Eastern party.

Pellmann (47) comes from Saxony, Reichinnek (35) grew up in Saxony-Anhalt. Both were elected chairmen of the 28 Left Party MPs in the Bundestag on Monday after extremely close votes. This was a setback for party leaders Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler, who had campaigned for a consensus solution with broad majorities. MPs Ates Gürpinar and Clara Bünger, who are closer to the Executive Board, did not make the cut.

Reichinnek nevertheless said: "We are pulling in the same direction." The common goal is for the Left Party to return to the Bundestag as a parliamentary group in 2025. That is of course "a task for us". Pellmann said that he sees the group as united despite the close election results.

The Left Party is in crisis following the split of Sahra Wagenknecht's wing and is only polling between three and four percent nationwide. Pellmann distanced himself from the new Sahra Wagenknecht alliance (BSW) and was skeptical about working together after the East German state elections or in the Bundestag. "At the moment, it is becoming clear that the BSW is our political competitor," he said.

The new party has copied many of the Left's social policy demands. In foreign policy and the assessment of the economic crisis, on the other hand, there are contradictions. BSW members also no longer addressed each other as comrades and refrained from classifying themselves as left-wing. Socialism is not to be found in the programmatic cornerstones. "Therefore, they would first have to deliver before we can think about anything in common (...)", emphasized Pellmann.