Splitting the left is never wise. After Dietmar Bartsch, the head of the parliamentary group of the left party, announced his resignation from that post last week, the likelihood of a split becomes extremely high. The story notes that both withdrawals are expected to occur this September. Bartsch hints at a potential successor in the form of Sahra Wagenknecht, a prominent figure within the party for months. At 54, she remains highly visible, outspoken, and uncompromising. Some observers view her as the driving force behind the party’s stubborn, sometimes controversial stance, including positions that oppose asylum policies or arms shipments to Ukraine.
Bartsch says he will fight until the end to prevent a split and asserts he is always open to dialogue with Wagenknecht. The prospect of a dual leadership withdrawal in the smallest Bundestag faction does not necessarily reflect a party in collapse. The Left still holds seats in the federal parliament, but its representation rests on a handful of regional victories in eastern Germany rather than a broad, consistent national mandate. In 2021, the party secured 4.9 percent of the vote, just short of the 5 percent threshold needed for automatic direct access to the Bundestag. By German electoral law, the Left could still form a parliamentary group if it won at least three direct seats, which kept its representation intact in certain districts.
While Bartsch represents the moderating wing, Muhammad Ali sits among Wagenknecht’s supporters. The two announced their exits within days of each other, and the moderates have attempted to remove Wagenknecht from the party without success to date.
Combination of left parties
The current strain underscores the struggle to keep a party alive that stemmed from the merger of Gregor Gysi’s post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism and the social democratic opposition that Oskar Lafontaine carried into the 1999 reformist coalition. The broad leadership upheaval mirrors a historic fracture that has affected this political space for years. The SPD’s rise to power in the red-green era did not erase the rift; the two central figures, Schröder and Lafontaine, have not spoken to each other since that split.
Lafontaine later linked his political fate to Gysi, the architect of the post-communist PDS resurgence. The Left emerged from that union, moving away from being merely a regional to a national party. Regionally, it acted as a coalition partner with the SPD and the Greens, and the security perimeter around the Left gradually softened as it extended its influence.
The personal side of the alliance complicates matters: Lafontaine became the partner and later husband of Wagenknecht, who had led the party since the founding of the communist wing within the PDS. This interconnection fuels talk of a second internal rift within the Left, with or without a direct link to Lafontaine.
Ideological balances
The former SPD leader had already stepped back from the vanguard of the Left after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, opposing the so-called soft line that favored avoiding a straightforward confrontation with the war while resisting arms supplies. Lafontaine, like Wagenknecht, has advocated loyalty or a nuanced, understanding approach toward the Kremlin, a stance that mirrors concerns often associated with the far-right party Alternative for Germany in the Bundestag. This closeness spans beyond foreign policy; it extends to positions on asylum and climate issues, with Wagenknecht’s parliamentary interventions sometimes aligning with perspectives heard from the AfD.
Wagenknecht has been exploring the possibility of launching a new party for months, a prospect that leaves the rest of the Left anxious. A split could be fatal for a party that struggles to cross the five percent threshold in national polls. Some forecasts suggest Wagenknecht could attract a portion of the 39 deputies aligned with the Left, and if support falls below 37, the parliamentary caucus would lose its status, diminishing seats on committees, the vice-presidency, visibility, and funding tied to representation. A hypothetical new party has been shown in a popular poll to reach around 15 percent, though this figure could fluctuate with public sentiment. The question remains whether this move would redefine the Left as a leftist, a far-right, or a force elsewhere on the European spectrum. In short, it could be a protest vote with wide repercussions.
The moderates hope to bring back Gysi, a charismatic historical leader who has steered revivals in the past. Gysi, now 75, has faced serious health issues, but his influence persists. His next key moment will arrive on September 4, when the party aims to elect new chairpersons of the parliamentary group and possibly formalize the emerging rift in German politics.