Left stable after founding "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance"
Three weeks after the presentation of the "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance", her former party Die Linke appears largely unaffected, at least in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. "We are stable, we are in government and we are doing a good job," said state managing director Björn Griese to the German Press Agency. "People expect that too." In MV, the Left Party is the smaller partner in a coalition with the SPD.
Since the former Left Party frontwoman Wagenknecht announced the founding of her "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" in Berlin on October 26, which is to lead to a new party, there have been 15 resignations from the Left Party in the north-east and 14 new members, said Griese. Some of these resignations and some of the new members were due to Wagenknecht's departure. "From what I have heard, the situation is very similar in other state associations, such as Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt."
Griese went on to report that none of the office-holders and elected representatives of the Left Party in MV had left the party in the wake of Wagenknecht's founding. The stable situation can be explained by the fact that the members are committed to the party and its ideas. The Left Party in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern currently has around 2,600 members. The average age is 66 years.
The situation is different in Berlin, where the Left Party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag is about to be dissolved. This step is to be decided in a few days, as parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch announced. The background to this is that Wagenknecht and nine other MPs had declared their resignation from the party.
Despite this, the ten MPs had applied to remain members of the Left Party for the time being. The parliamentary group will only tolerate this for a short transitional period. Without the ten MPs, the remaining 28 Left Party representatives in the Bundestag can only continue as a group, as the minimum size of 37 seats is not enough to form a parliamentary group. This entails the loss of certain parliamentary rights.
Despite the founding of the "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance," some members of the Left Party in other regions like Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt have also followed her lead, leading to some resignations and new members. However, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the Left Party is in a coalition with the SPD, no key office-holders or representatives have left the party, keeping the Left Party stable within the region. Despite the resignations and departures of some MPs in Berlin, the Left Party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag is yet to fully disband, with the ten resigning MPs currently remaining as members for a transitional period.
Source: www.dpa.com
