The Left (Germany)

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The Left (Die Linke)
The Left logo
Leader Lothar Bisky
Oskar Lafontaine
Founded June 16, 2007
Headquarters Karl-Liebknecht-Haus
Kl. Alexanderstraße 28
D-10178 Berlin
Political Ideology Democratic socialism
International Affiliation none
European Affiliation Party of the European Left
European Parliament Group GUE/NGL
Colours Red
Website www.die-linke.de
See also Politics of Germany

Political parties
Elections

The Left (German: Die Linke) is a German political party that came into being on 16 June 2007 as a merger of The Left Party/PDS the former SED, the governing party of former East Germany, and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (WASG). Its leaders are Lothar Bisky and Oskar Lafontaine. The party sees itself as 'left' of the other parties represented in the Bundestag.

As of April 2008, the party has 73,455 members, making it the fourth largest political party in Germany.[1] The party is represented in the Bundestag, where it is currently the fourth largest faction (of five represented), holding 54 of the 614 seats. The electoral strongholds of the party are located in the states which were previously part of communist East Germany, where also the large majority of its members come from.

Internationally, The Left is a member of the Party of the European Left and is the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament.

Contents

[edit] History

The mass protests that forced the dismissal of East German head of state Erich Honecker in 1989 also empowered a younger generation of reform politicians in East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party who looked to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika as their model for political change. Reformers like authors Stefan Heym and Christa Wolf and attorney Gregor Gysi, dissidents like Rudolf Bahro, soon began to reconstruct the political profile of the party. By the end of 1989 the last hardline members of the party's Central Committee had resigned, followed in 1990 by 95% of the SED's 2.3 million members. A new name, "Party of Democratic Socialism", was adopted to distance the reformed party from its communist past (after a brief transitional period as the SED/PDS). By early 1990, the PDS was no longer a Marxist-Leninist party, though neo-marxist and communist minority factions continued to exist.

[edit] Up to 2005

In the first all-German Bundestag elections in 1990, the PDS won only 2.4% of the nationwide vote, but under a one-time exception to Germany's electoral law entered the Bundestag with 17 deputies led by Gregor Gysi. In the 1994 election, in spite of an aggressive anti-communist "Red Socks" campaign organised against the PDS by the then-ruling Christian Democrats aimed at scaring off voters, the PDS managed to increase its vote to 4.4 percent, winning a plurality in four eastern electoral districts, and re-entered the Bundestag with an enlarged caucus of 30 deputies. In 1998, the party reached the high-water mark in its fortunes by electing 37 deputies with 5.1% of the national vote, thus clearing the critical 5% threshold required for guaranteed proportional representation and full parliamentary status. The party's future seemed bright, but it suffered from a number of weaknesses, not the least of which was its dependence on Mr Gysi, considered by supporters and critics alike as a super-star in German politics who stood in stark contrast to a colorless general membership. Gysi's resignation in 2000 after losing a policy debate with party leftists soon spelled trouble for the PDS. In the 2002 election, the vote sank to 4.0%, and the party was able to seat only two back-benchers elected directly from their districts, Petra Pau and Gesine Lötzsch.

After the 2002 debacle, the PDS adopted a new program and re-installed a respected moderate, long-time Gysi ally Lothar Bisky, as chairman. A renewed sense of self-confidence soon re-energized the party. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the PDS won 6.1% of the vote nationwide, its highest total at that time in a federal election. Its electoral base in the eastern German states continued to grow, where today it ranks with the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats as one of the region's three strong parties. However, low membership and voter support in Germany's western states continued to plague the party until it formed an electoral alliance in July 2005 with the newly-formed Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG), a leftist faction largely consisting of dissident Social Democrats and trade unionists.

[edit] Alliance with the WASG

After marathon negotiations, the PDS and WASG agreed on terms for a combined ticket to compete in the 2005 federal elections and pledged to unify into a single left party in 2006 or 2007. According to the pact, the parties did not compete against each another in any district. Instead, WASG candidates—including the former Social Democratic leader, Oskar Lafontaine—were nominated on the PDS electoral list. To symbolize the new relationship, the PDS changed its name to The Left Party/PDS, with the letters "PDS" optional in western states where many voters still regarded the PDS as an "eastern" party with personal and ideological links to the SED regime.

The alliance provided a strong electoral base in the east and benefited from WASG's growing voter potential in the west. Gregor Gysi, returning to public life only months after brain surgery and two heart attacks, shared the spotlight with Lafontaine as co-leader of the party's energetic and professional campaign. Both politicians will co-chair the Left's caucus in the German Bundestag after the election.

Polls early in the summer showed the unified Left list on a "high-altitude flight," winning as much as 12 percent of the vote, and for a time it seemed possible the party would surge past the established German Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party and become the third-strongest force in the Bundestag. Alarmed by the Left's unexpected rise in the polls, Germany's mainstream politicians hit back at Lafontaine and Gysi as "left populists" and "demagogues" and accused the party of flirting with neo-Nazi voters. A gaffe by Lafontaine, who described "foreign workers" as a threat in one speech early in the campaign, provided ammunition for charges that the Left was attempting to exploit German xenophobia and voters from the far right.

Despite this enmity, the 2005 elections saw the emergence of a powerful Left Party, which received 8.7% of the nationwide vote and won 54 seats in the new German Bundestag. The process towards unification between Left Party.PDS and WASG went on until 2007. On 27 March of that year, both parties decided in favour of a united party. The founding party congress took place on 16 June.

Shortly before the unification, the Left Party/PDS had already entered the Bürgerschaft of Bremen and was thus being represented in a state legislature of former West Germany - something it had never accomplished as PDS. In the first months of 2008, more electoral successes followed for The Left, which entered the state parliaments of Lower Saxony and Hessen and the senate of Hamburg.

[edit] Policies

The Left aims for democratic socialism. In accordance to Marxist tradition, the capitalist system of Germany is questioned, as are current neoliberal concepts. As a platform of left politics in the wake of globalization, The Left includes many different factions, ranging from communists to left-leaning social democrats.

As of December 2007, The Left hasn't yet adopted its own party program. This is planned for 2008. In March 2007, during the joint party congress of Left Party and WASG, a document outlining political principles was agreed on. In labour market and fiscal policies, those include solidarity and more co-determination for workers, redistribution of wealth through different means (including tax increases for corporations and big companies), the end of privatization and the introduction of a minimum wage.

Concerning international politics, The Left welcomes the European Process towards integration, while opposing all forms of militarism rising in the current political climate and the market-oriented policies of the European Union. The party strives for the democratization of the EU institutions and a stronger role of the United Nations in international politics.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Membership Numbers May 2008

[edit] External links

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