Bartsch: Looking to the future

After the end of the left-wing faction - Bartsch: Looking to the future

After the end of its parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the Left Party is hoping to regain its footing as a group and win back voters. "Now we have to look to the future," said Dietmar Bartsch, the former parliamentary group leader, on ARD television on Wednesday. The decision to dissolve the left-wing parliamentary group had previously come into effect. The background to this is the split of a group of MPs around Sahra Wagenknecht, who want to found a rival party.

As the left-wing parliamentary group without the ten MPs does not reach the minimum size of 37 MPs, it decided in mid-November to disband on December 6. This took effect at midnight. The former parliamentary group members want to regroup in two different groups in the Bundestag: the remaining 28 Left Party MPs on the one hand and the ten members of the "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" on the other.

SPD expects decision on groups in early 2024

Such groups generally have fewer rights in the Bundestag than parliamentary groups and also receive less financial support from the state. The details will be regulated in a Bundestag resolution. It remains to be seen when the plenary will decide on this. The SPD's Parliamentary Secretary, Katja Mast, said in Berlin: "We will soon begin inter-party talks on a motion by the Council of Elders to recognize the groups so that the Bundestag can pass a resolution on this at the beginning of next year."

Bartsch said in the ARD interview on the end of the parliamentary group: "This is certainly a painful turning point today. It is also a defeat for the Left, without a doubt." But left-wing opposition is necessary. "It is up to us whether we will be represented again as a parliamentary group in the next Bundestag." The Left Party has suffered a series of election defeats since 2021 and is polling below 5 percent nationwide.

Bartsch said that the Wagenknecht group would not be the central point of reference for the Left. "Ignoring it is the highest form of political debate, but that's not the point." It is a small group "without a program, without anything". He announced that the Left Party would now once again increasingly represent East German interests.

"The shutdown of the parliamentary group must become visible"

The liquidator appointed for this purpose, Thomas Westphal, described what the dissolution of the parliamentary group means in concrete terms to the German Press Agency on Wednesday. He initially asked all 100 or so employees not to show up for work. "It should become clear that the lights have actually gone out," said Westphal. "The parliamentary group's shutdown must be visible." Legally speaking, the parliamentary group should no longer be active, also to avoid the impression that state funds are being misappropriated.

Westphal went on to say that it had been agreed with the Bundestag that at least the previous email accounts would continue to work. In the coming weeks and months, he himself will not only oversee the dismissal of all employees, but will also sell all technical equipment from tablets to fax machines as well as several vehicles. All contracts and liabilities will be settled. Westphal's team of liquidators comprises ten people who will remain employed for this purpose only.

Bartsch told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland that the Left Party as a group will re-employ some of the staff, "but in the end there will be significantly fewer because the global subsidies for the parliamentary group will be missing in future." Unfortunately, this is the end for many.

Wagenknecht's fellow campaigner Christian Leye told the German Press Agency that the dissolution of the parliamentary group was naturally accompanied by melancholy. "There are people in the parliamentary group, but also in the party, who I greatly respect and above all value. In the end, however, it was a political decision: The majority of functionaries in the Left no longer faced up to the crises of the time."

The Left Fraction was founded in 2005 by members of the Left Party.PDS and the WASG, two years before the formal merger of the two parties.