Die Linke, the destroyed party of the German left, seeks salvation in Europe Carola Racketecaptain of the ship “Sea Watch 3” Those who did not comply with the ban in 2019 Far-right Matteo Salvini It will dock in Lampedusa with 40 refugees. A few weeks after the party completed the separation of its most prominent media figure, Sarah WagenknechtLeft delegates focused on: Augsburg (Southern Germany) for a three-day congress whose goal is to close ranks ahead of the 2024 European elections. “The left needs to renew itself,” said the 35-year-old and politically independent Rackete, who was appointed by the leadership to head the party list alongside the president. Martin Schiderwan. The leader of the left is a face that many Germans barely know; he has been in office since 2019 and represents numerous attempts to revive it. Rackete’s claim relates to the challenge made against the then Italian Interior Minister Salvini in the same year. Footage of “Sea Watch 3”, which sets an example of dramatic rescues carried out by NGOs operating at sea, spread all over the world. Mediterrenian.
Today’s Europe is much more closed to these rescue operations than it was five years ago. As the far right leads governments such as Giorgia Meloni in Italy, pressure is growing among centrists to reduce irregular migration. The German left wants to represent the exact opposite of anti-asylum movements and, in the process, distance itself from Wagenknecht’s line. The division held by this representative maintains positions similar to those of the House on immigration issues. Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Wagenknecht’s commitment, seen more in television meetings than in parliamentary plenary sessions, is closer to far-right populism. According to some analysts, it could rally voters from among so-called anti-immigration “protest votes” to the detriment of the AfD, which has the second-largest voting power according to polls.
Rackete does not have the political weight of Wagenknecht, a founding member of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the post-communist formation from which the Left emerged. The captain and activist’s presentation at the Augsburg congress actually included an initial hitch: He had to qualify some statements in which he advocated changing the name of the party and distinguishing it from its past as a successor to the communist regime of Germany. Something that has drawn criticism from the most traditionalists, who do not see loyalty to a non-party candidate as a positive in itself.
Their survival depends on Die Linke’s success in the European Championship. fell below the 5% bar, the minimum required to win seats in the 2021 general election; but eventually gained representation in parliament thanks to victories in many districts in the east of the country. The split between Wagenknecht and nine other MPs will be followed by the loss of their parliamentary group status and the financial and representational consequences this entails.
From reserve before Israel to illegal Greta
Position of the German Left immigration issue It matches that of its European sister parties. However, the European leftist family’s position vis-à-vis Gaza is different and clearly in favor of Palestine. The majority of the German parliament is committed to a firm commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself. The left shares this principle, although the mass bombings of the civilian population in Gaza allow for some criticism.
Any statement by the left leadership on Gaza is preceded by a resounding condemnation of Hamas terrorism. This is therefore part of the German political class’s warning against statements and attitudes that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic.
One representative of this obstruction by the Germans is the reaction to cases such as Greta Thunberg, who was delegitimized on the latest cover of the weekly magazine “Der Spiegel” for campaigning for “Free Palestine”. The German branch of the “Fridays for Future” movement has clearly distanced itself from the Swedish activist, who went from being an idol of environmentalism and the left to being treated as “persona non grata”.