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Left-wing parties propose group formation in the Bundestag

The days of the Left Party in the Bundestag are numbered. After the split with Sahra Wagenknecht and her supporters, it must be wound up. The MPs from both camps now want to form so-called groups.

Dietmar Bartsch: "We remain the left-wing opposition." Photo.aussiedlerbote.de
Dietmar Bartsch: "We remain the left-wing opposition." Photo.aussiedlerbote.de

Parties - Left-wing parties propose group formation in the Bundestag

Following the planned dissolution of their parliamentary group next Wednesday, the members of the Left Party parliamentary group in the Bundestag want to continue working together as a so-called group. An application to this effect should be submitted to the Bundestag Presidium immediately, parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch announced in Berlin.

A Bundestag resolution is required to approve a group and determine its rights. Compared to a parliamentary group, a group has fewer parliamentary rights, for example when asking questions of the government, as Bartsch confirmed, and it receives less financial support from the state coffers. The details will be set out in the corresponding Bundestag resolution. Until then, it is also unclear where the Left Party MPs will sit in the plenary chamber in future.

In mid-November, the Left Party parliamentary group decided to disband on December 6. The background to this is the resignation of former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht and nine other MPs from the party. Without them, the parliamentary group will lose its minimum size of 37 MPs and will have to be liquidated.

Wagenknecht and her fellow campaigners are also seeking group status. When the application for this will be submitted will be decided in the coming weeks, a spokeswoman said when asked. The 54-year-old wants to found a new party in January.

Bartsch: "Going downhill is quick, going uphill is much more difficult"

Bartsch was combative. They will continue to be the voice for social justice in the Bundestag. "We will remain the left-wing opposition." The aim is to return to parliament with a strong parliamentary group in the 2025 federal elections. "That's hard work. Going downhill is quick, going uphill is much more difficult." According to his own statements, the former parliamentary group leader will also become the chairman of the planned parliamentary group of the Left Party. He said that he had been unanimously requested to do so by the 28 members of the remaining parliamentary group.

With the dissolution of the parliamentary group, 108 employees, such as office staff, will also lose their jobs. Bartsch was unable to say how many of them could be taken on. This will also depend on how much money the future group will have at its disposal. Initially, everyone would receive their notice after December 6. "We will probably keep the people who are extremely important to us, in terms of content and politics, in the new group."

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Source: www.stern.de

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