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The Left Die Linke
Chairperson	Katja Kipping Bernd Riexinger
Founded	16 June 2007 (2007-06-16)
Merger of	PDS WASG
Headquarters	Karl-Liebknecht-Haus Kl. Alexanderstraße 28 D-10178 Berlin
Newspaper	Neues Deutschland
Think tank	Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
Student wing	Die Linke.SDS
Youth wing	Left Youth Solid
Membership (October 2017)	62,000 [1]
Ideology	Democratic socialism[2][3] Left-wing populism[4] Anti-capitalism[5][6] Antimilitarism[7]
Political position	Left-wing[8][9][10][11] to far-left[12][13][14][15]
European affiliation	Party of the European Left
International affiliation	None
European Parliament group	European United Left–Nordic Green Left
Colors	Red (official)      Purple (customary)[16][17]
Bundestag	69 / 709
Bundesrat	4 / 69
State Parliaments	157 / 1,821
European Parliament	7 / 96
Prime Ministers of States	1 / 16
Party flag
Website
www.die-linke.de
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The Left (German: Die Linke), also commonly referred to as the Left Party (German: die Linkspartei, pronounced [diː ˈlɪŋkspaʁˌtaɪ̯] (listen)), is a democratic socialist^[2][3]political party in Germany. It is considered to be left-wing populist^[4] by some researchers. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and the Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG). Through the PDS, the party is the direct descendant of the ruling party of the former East Germany (GDR), the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).^[18]

Since mid-2012, its co-chairs have been Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger. In the Bundestag the party won 64 out of 630 seats after polling 8.6% of the vote in the 2013 federal elections and, after the Social Democrats and the CDU/CSU formed a grand coalition, became leader of the opposition.^[19] In the 2017 elections, the party acquired 69 out of 709 seats after receiving 9.2% of the vote.^{[citation needed]}. Its parliamentary group is the fifth largest among the six groups in the German Bundestag, ahead of the Greens. The Left is a founding member of the Party of the European Left, and is the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in the European Parliament.

The party is the most left-wing party of the six represented in the Bundestag, and has been called far-left by some news outlets, but according to the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungschutz), the party as such is not to be regarded as extremely left or a threat to democracy.^[20] However, it does monitor some of its internal factions, such as Socialist Left, as do some states' similar authorities, on account of suspected extremist tendencies.^[21]

According to official party figures, the Left Party had 63,784 registered members as of December 2013,^[22] making it the fifth-largest party in Germany.^[23]

The party participates in governments in the states of Brandenburg, as junior partner to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD); Thuringia with the SPD and The Greens in a three-party coalition with The Left parliamentarian Bodo Ramelow serving as Minister-President; and Berlin with the SPD and Greens in a three-party coalition, led by Michael Müller of the SPD.

History

Foundation

The Peaceful Revolution in East Germany which led to the replacement of Communist leader Erich Honecker in October 1989 led to a new generation of politicians in East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) who looked to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika as their model for political change. They had mostly kept their own counsel during the Honecker era. However, the upheaval in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall gave them an opening.

Longtime SED politician Hans Modrow, attorney Gregor Gysi and dissidents like Rudolf Bahro and Stefan Heym soon began to rebuild a party that had long been known as one of the most rigidly Stalinist parties in the Soviet bloc. After protests, the party was forced to give up its monopoly of power on 1 December 1989. Honecker's successor, Egon Krenz, resigned two days later, and Gysi was named party chairman. By the end of 1989, the last hardline members of the party's Central Committee had either resigned or been pushed out. In 1990, 95% of SED's 2.3 million members had left the party.

By the time of a special congress in December 1989, the party was no longer a Marxist–Leninist party, though neo-Marxist and communist minority factions continued to be part of the party. At the congress, the party adopted a program of democratic reform. To try to distance itself from its repressive past and repair its reputation with the public, the party renamed itself "Socialist Unity Party-Party of Democratic Socialism", but dropped the SED part altogether in February 1990. Gysi remained its leader, and soon became one of the most well-known faces within German politics.

By the end of February, the PDS had expelled most of the remaining prominent Communist-era leaders from its ranks - including Honecker and Krenz. However, this was not enough to save the party when it faced the voters at the 18 March general election, the first (and as it turned out, only) free election in East Germany. The party came in a distant third with 16.4% of the vote, behind the East German branches of the West German-based Christian Democratic Union and Social Democratic Party. The two major parties formed a grand coalition, led by the Alliance for Germany, built around the East German CDU, which meant the PDS was the main opposition party.

Klaus Ernst

Up to 2005

In the first all-German Bundestag elections in 1990, the PDS won 2.4% of the nationwide vote. Under normal circumstances, a party must win at least five percent of the vote to qualify for mixed member proportional representation in the Bundestag. However, for the 1990 elections only, a one-time exception allowed eastern-based parties to qualify for list representation if they won at least five percent of the vote in the former East Germany. Also, Gysi was elected from a Berlin-area district; representatives elected directly through the "First Vote" are always guaranteed a seat regardless of their party's national vote. As a result, the PDS entered the 1990 Bundestag with 17 deputies led by Gysi, albeit without the privileges afforded to parliamentary groups.

In the 1994 federal election the PDS managed to increase its share of the vote to 4.4 percent. This was in spite of an aggressive "Red Socks" campaign organised against the PDS by the then-ruling CDU aimed at scaring off voters by insinuating that underneath their suits, representatives of the PDS were "still wearing red socks"—i.e., harboring hardline Communist convictions. More importantly, Gysi was reelected from his Berlin-area seat, and three other candidates were elected from eastern electoral districts. This allowed the PDS to qualify for MMP even though it came up just short of the five percent threshold. Parties with at least three directly elected seats enter the Bundestag with their full contingent of representatives corresponding to the party's popular vote count, even if it falls short of the normal threshold. The PDS thus entered the new Bundestag with an enlarged caucus of 30 deputies.

In 1998, the party reached its highest result to date, with 37 deputies elected on 5.1% of the national vote, thus qualifying for full parliamentary status in the Bundestag. Gysi's resignation in 2000 after losing a policy debate with leftist factions brought conflict to the PDS. In the 2002 federal election, the party's share of the vote declined to 4.0% and the PDS was represented only by two backbenchers elected directly from their districts, Petra Pau and Gesine Lötzsch.

After the 2002 debacle, the PDS adopted a new program and installed long-time Gysi ally Lothar Bisky as chairman. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the PDS won 6.1% of the vote nationwide, its highest share at that time in a federal election. Its electoral base in the eastern German states continued to grow, until it ranked as the third strongest party in the east, behind the CDU and SPD. However, low membership and voter support in Germany's western states continued to plague the party until it formed an electoral alliance in July 2005 with the newly formed Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG), a party largely consisting of dissident Social Democrats, trade union members, and an assortment of radical leftists.

Alliance with the WASG

Gregor Gysi

After negotiations, the PDS and WASG agreed on terms for a combined ticket to compete in the 2005 federal election and pledged to unify into a single left-wing party during 2007. According to the pact, the parties did not compete against each another in any district. Instead, WASG candidates—including the former SPD leader, Oskar Lafontaine—were nominated on the PDS electoral list. To symbolise the new relationship and to further try and distance itself from its past, the PDS changed its name to The Left Party.PDS (Linkspartei.PDS) or simply The Left.PDS, with the letters "PDS" optional in western states where many voters still regarded the PDS with suspicion.

The alliance benefited from a strong electoral base in the east and WASG's growing voter potential in the west. Gregor Gysi, returning to public life only months after brain surgery and two heart attacks, shared the spotlight with Lafontaine as co-leader of the party.

Polls early in the summer showed the unified Left list winning as much as 12 percent of the vote, and for a time it seemed possible the party would surge past the established Alliance '90/The Greens and right–liberal Free Democratic Party and become the third-strongest faction of the Bundestag. Alarmed by the Left's unexpected rise in the polls, Germany's mainstream politicians attacked Lafontaine and Gysi as "leftist populists" and "demagogues" and accused the party of flirting with neo-Nazi voters. A gaffe by Lafontaine, who described "foreign workers" as a threat in one speech early in the campaign, provided ammunition for charges that The Left was attempting to exploit German xenophobia and anti-democratic populism to attract voters from the far-right.^[24]

In spite of all this, in the 2005 elections the Left Party became the fourth largest party in the Bundestag with 8.7% of the nationwide vote and 53 seats. Negotiations on unification between Left Party. PDS and WASG continued through the next year until the two forces reached agreement on 27 March 2007. The joint party—now called simply "The Left"—celebrated its founding congress on 16 June in Berlin.

The unified party soon became an electoral force in Western Germany for the first time, winning a small number of seats in state elections in Bremen, Lower Saxony, Hesse and Hamburg. The "five-party system" in Germany was now a reality in the west as well as the east.

A string of electoral successes followed in the "Super Election Year" of 2009. In the campaign for seats in the European Parliament, The Left party won 7.5% of the vote nationwide, continuing a steady upward trend in European elections (1994: 4.7%, 1999: 5.8%, 2004: 6.1%). In six state elections, the party either surged ahead or consolidated earlier gains, increasing its vote in Thuringia and Hesse, and winning seats for the first time in Schleswig Holstein. In Saarland, the party became a significant force for the first time in a western state, winning 19.2% of the vote and taking third place ahead of the Free Democratic Party and the Greens. In Saxony and Brandenburg, the party's vote declined slightly while it remained the second largest political force in both states.

The electoral collapse of the Social Democratic Party in the federal election on 27 September 2009 gave The Left an unprecedented opportunity. The party's vote surged to 11.9 percent, increasing its representation in the Bundestag from 54 to 76 seats. It remains the second largest opposition party.

2010 presidential election

Ahead of the 2010 presidential election, Social Democrats and Greens invited the Left to vote for their candidate, Joachim Gauck. They proposed the election of the civil rights activist and former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records as a possibility for the Left to leave their communist past behind them and show unconditional support for democracy.^[25] Die Linke refused to support either Gauck, or conservative Christian Wulff, the favourite of the chancellor,^[26] but put forward their own nominee, television journalist Luc Jochimsen.^[27] The Left declared it impossible to vote for Gauck, as he had supported the German commitment in the Afghan War and had attacked the post-communists.^[28] The red-green camp reacted with disappointment.^[29] SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel described Die Linke's position as "bizarre and embarrassing," stating that he was "shocked" that the party would declare Joachim Gauck their main enemy due to his investigation of communist injustice.^[30] According to Gabriel, Die Linke had manifested itself once again as the successor of the East German communist party.^[31] Social Democrats and Greens expected the Left to support Gauck at least in the decisive third round of the election. But after Jochimsen had withdrawn, most Left electoral delegates abstained.^[29][31] Wulff was elected by an absolute majority.^[32]

Since 2012 presidential election

The party was isolated ahead of the 2012 presidential election, as the government invited the SPD and Greens, but not Die Linke, to agree on an all-party consensus candidate for President. The CDU/CSU and FDP government parties, and the SPD and the Greens, eventually agreed on Joachim Gauck, the SPD's and the Greens' preferred candidate. Die Linke again refused to support him.^[33] The SPD chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, criticized Die Linke and claimed the reason for the party's rejection of Gauck was its "sympathy for the German Democratic Republic."^[34][35] On 11 April 2012 the chairwoman of the party, Gesine Lötzsch, declared her resignation as a chairwoman of the party.^[36]

In the 2013 federal election, The Left received 8.6% of the national vote and won 64 seats, a small decline from 2009; however, due to the formation of a grand coalition between the CDU and SPD, the party became the main opposition in the Bundestag.^[37]

In the 2014 European parliament elections, The Left received 7.4% of the national vote, returning 7 MEPs.^[38]
After 2014 Thuringian state election, the party lead a governing coalition at the state level for the first time, supported by the SPD and Greens. Bodo Ramelow was elected Minister-President by the Landtag, becoming the first member of the party to serve in the role in any German state.

In the 2017 federal election, The Left made small gains, but nonetheless fell to fifth place due to the re-entry of the FDP to the Bundestag in fourth place, and the ascension of AfD to third place.

Ideology

The Left aims for democratic socialism in order to overcome capitalism. As a platform for left politics in the wake of globalization, The Left includes many different factions, ranging from communists to social democrats. In March 2007, during the joint party convention of Left Party and WASG, a document outlining political principles was agreed on. The official program of the party was decided upon by an overwhelming majority at the party conference in October 2011 in Erfurt, Thuringia.

The party's fiscal policies are based on Keynesian economics, originating from the 1930s when governments responded to the Great Depression. The central bank and government should collaborate with expansionary fiscal and monetary policies in order to ameliorate business cycles, to support economic growth, and to reduce unemployment. Wage rises in the private sector should be determined through the productivity growth, the target inflation rate of the European Central Bank, and master contracts.

The party aims at increasing government spending in the areas of public investments, education, research and development, culture, and infrastructure, as well as increasing taxes for large corporations. It calls for increases in inheritance tax rates and the reinstatement of the individual "net worth" tax. The Left aims at a linear income tax progression, which would reduce the tax burden for lower incomes, while raising the middle- and top-income tax rates. The combating of tax loopholes is a perennial issue, as The Left believes that they primarily benefit people with high incomes.

The financial markets should be subject to heavier government regulation, with the goal, among others, to reduce the speculation of bonds and derivatives. The party wants to strengthen anti-trust laws and empower cooperatives to decentralise the economy. Further economic reforms shall include solidarity and more self-determination for workers, a ban on gas and oil fracking, the rejection of privatization and the introduction of a federal minimum wage,^[39] and more generally the overthrow of property and power structures in which, citing Karl Marx's aphorism, "man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence".^[40]

Foreign policy

Concerning foreign policy, The Left calls for international disarmament, while ruling out any form of involvement of the Bundeswehr outside of Germany. The party calls for a replacement of NATO with a collective security system including Russia as a member country. German foreign policy should be strictly confined to the goals of civil diplomacy and cooperation, instead of confrontation.

The Left supports further debt cancellations for developing countries and increases in development aid, in collaboration with the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Bank, and diverse bilateral treaties among countries. The party supports reform of the United Nations as long as it is aimed at a fair balance between developed and developing countries. The Left would have all American military bases within Germany, and if possible in the European Union, enacted within a binding treaty, dissolved. The Left welcomes the European process of integration, while opposing what it believes to be neoliberal policies in the European Union. The party strives for the democratisation of the EU institutions and a stronger role of the United Nations in international politics. The Left opposed both the War in Afghanistan and in Iraq,^[39] as well as the Lisbon Treaty.^[41]

The party has a mixed stance towards the recent Ukrainian crisis. Gregor Gysi has described Russia as "state capitalist", and the party has called the Russian annexation of Crimea and Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine "illegal". However, Gysi has noted that "older" elements of the party have a strong penchant for Russia and the Soviet Union.^[42] The party declared in May 2014 that Ukraine shouldn't receive any kind of support from Germany as long as there are "fascists" inside its government.^[43]

Controversies

The Left Party's position as the successor party of the SED of the former German Democratic Republic and its positions have often led to controversy,^[44] and to the party being observed by the Verfassungsschutz authorities.

In 2001, Gabi Zimmer, the head of the Left Party's predecessor PDS at the time, officially recognized the injustice of building the Berlin Wall in 1961, but she did not apologize on behalf of the Party.^[45]

Observation by Verfassungsschutz

Germany operates a system of "Verfassungsschutz" (Protection of the Constitution) at both federal level (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) and state level (Landesbehörden für Verfassungsschutz, LfV), which carries out domestic surveillance of actual and suspected activities which may threaten the "free and democratic basic order" ("freiheitlich-demokratische Grundordnung") at the core of the German constitution. The Left Party, including one third of its members of parliament,^[46] and some of its caucuses remain under observation by the BfV, listed in the annual Verfassungsschutzbericht under the heading "left-extremist tendencies and suspected cases". The 2007 report cites as evidence of the party's "extremism" Lothar Bisky's June 2007 statement that democratic socialism remains the party's goal: "We also still discuss the change of property and power relations [...]. We question the system." However, the report notes that in practice the parliamentary party appears as to act as a "reform-oriented" left force. In addition, the report cites "openly extremist groupings" within the party, notably the Marxist–Leninist Communist Platform, which in Sahra Wagenknecht has a representative on the 44-member Left Party executive.^[47] One former Bundestag deputy, Bodo Ramelow, was under BfV surveillance until a court decision in January 2008 that the observation was illegal.^[48][49]

The Left is also under observation by four western CDU/CSU-governed states, where the party in its entirety is considered to be extremist (Lower Saxony, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria).^[50] Saarland ceased observation of The Left in January 2008.^[49] By contrast, in the five eastern states, The Left is not under surveillance, with the local LfVs seeing no indication of anti-constitutional behaviour of the party as a whole. However, the small "Communist Platform"—a hardline communist minority faction within the party—is under observation in three eastern states.^[51]

In January 2012, it became known that more than one third of the party's MPs were observed by the federal Verfassungsschutz due to suspected extremist views.^[52][53] This was ruled to be unconstitutional by the BVerfG in 2013.^[54] Subsequently, Federal Minister of the interior Thomas de Maizière declared in 2014 that no Bundestag members of the Left would be under surveillance by the BfV from then on, even if they are members of the Communist Platform or comparable extreme Left factions.^[55]

2007 walkout in Saxon Parliament

On 3 October 2007, during a commemoration ceremony^[56] in the Saxon Parliament in memory of the German reunification and the fall of the German Democratic Republic, all members of The Left walked out in protest. The Left was upset that Joachim Gauck, the former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records and later President of Germany, was invited to deliver a speech.^[57]

Election results

Federal Parliament (Bundestag)

Election year	# of constituency votes	# of party list votes	% of party list vote	# of overall seats won	+/−	Notes
2005	3,764,168	4,118,194	8.7	54 / 614	52	As WASG and PDS
2009	4,791,124	5,155,933	11.9	76 / 622	22
2013	3,585,178	3,755,699	8.6	64 / 631	12
2017	3,966,035	4,296,762	9.2	69 / 709	5

State Parliaments (Länder)

State Parliament	Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	Seats			Government
				#	±	Position
Baden-Württemberg	2016	156,211	2.9 (#6)	0 / 138	0	6th	Extra-Parliamentary
Bavaria	2018	435,949	3.2 (#7)	0 / 205	0	7th	Extra-Parliamentary
Berlin	2016	255,740	15.6 (#3)	27 / 149	7	3rd	SPD - Greens - The Left
Brandenburg	2014	183,172	18.6 (#3)	17 / 88	9	3rd	SPD - The Left
Bremen	2015	111.485	9.5 (#4)	8 / 83	3	4th	Opposition
Hamburg	2015	300,567	8.5 (#4)	11 / 121	3	4th	Opposition
Hesse	2018	181,332	6.3 (#6)	9 / 137	3	6th	Opposition
Lower Saxony	2017	177,118	4.6 (#6)	0 / 137	0	6th	Extra-Parliamentary
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	2016	106,259	13.2 (#4)	11 / 71	3	4th	Opposition
North Rhine-Westphalia	2017	415,936	4.9 (#5)	0 / 237	0	6th	Extra-Parliamentary
Rhineland-Palatinate	2016	60,074	2.8 (#6)	0 / 101	0	6th	Extra-Parliamentary
Saarland	2017	68,566	12.9 (#3)	7 / 51	2	3rd	Opposition
Saxony	2014	309,568	18.9 (#2)	27 / 126	2	2nd	Opposition
Saxony-Anhalt	2016	183,296	16.3 (#3)	17 / 105	9	3rd	Opposition
Schleswig-Holstein	2017	55,833	3.8 (#6)	0 / 69	0	6th	Extra-Parliamentary
Thuringia	2014	265,425	28.2 (#2)	28 / 91	1	2nd	The Left - SPD - Greens

State parliaments

State parliaments

Baden-Württemberg Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2011 139,700 2.8 0 / 138 0 2016 156,211 2.9 0 / 138 0

Bavaria Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2008 461,755 4.4 0 / 187 0 2013 251,097 2.1 0 / 180 0 2018 435,949 3.2 0 / 205 0

Berlin Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2006 225,689 16.3 23 / 141 10 WASG against PDS 2011 170,829 11.6 20 / 152 3 2016 255,740 15.6 27 / 160 7

Brandenburg Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2009 377,084 27.2 26 / 88 3 2014 183,172 18.6 17 / 88 9

Bremen Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2007 23,282 8.4 7 / 83 7 2011 73,769 5.6 5 / 83 2 2015 115,385 9.5 8 / 83 3

Hamburg Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2008 50,173 6.4 8 / 121 8 2011 220,428* 6.4 8 / 121 0 2015 298,368* 8.5 11 / 121 3 *) five votes per voter

Hesse Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2008 140,769 5.1 6 / 110 6 2009 139,074 5.4 6 / 118 0 2013 161,488 5.2 6 / 110 0

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2006 141,534 17.3 13 / 71 0 WASG against PDS 2011 125,528 18.4 14 / 71 1 2016 106,259 13.2 11 / 71 3

Lower Saxony Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2008 243,361 7.1 11 / 152 11 2013 110,525 3.1 0 / 137 11

North Rhine-Westphalia Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2005 254,977 3.1 0 / 187 0 (WASG+PDS) 2010 435,627 5.6 11 / 181 11 2012 194,428 2.5 0 / 237 11 2017 415,936 4.9 0 / 199 0

Rhineland-Palatinate Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2006 44,826 2.6 0 / 101 0 2011 56,054 3.0 0 / 101 0 2016 60,074 2.8 0 / 138 0

Saarland Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2009 113,660 21.5 (#3) 11 / 51 11 2012 77,612 16.1 (#3) 9 / 51 2 2017 68,566 12.9 (#3) 7 / 51 2

Saxony Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2009 370,359 20.6 29 / 132 2 2014 309,568 18.9 27 / 126 2

Saxony-Anhalt Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2006 217,295 24.1 26 / 97 1 2011 235,011 23.7 29 / 105 3 2016 183,296 16.3 17 / 105 13

Schleswig-Holstein Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2009 95,764 6.0 6 / 95 6 2012 29,900 2.2 0 / 69 6 2017 55,833 3.8 0 / 73 0

Thuringia Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2009 288,932 27.4 27 / 88 1 2014 265,425 28.2 28 / 91 1 A coalition with SPD and Greens was formed, marking the first time Linke had led a government at the state level.

European Parliament Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/− Notes 2009 1,968,325 7.5 8 / 99 1 2014 2,167,641 7.3 7 / 96 1 Party list results for The Left in the 2009 federal election by constituencies. They came fourth with a total result of 11.9%, which is their best result to date in a nationwide election. Until 2007, the former Party of Democratic Socialism was represented only in the state parliaments of eastern Germany and Berlin, including Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. After the May 2007 election Bremen, a joint PDS-WASG ticket was able to form a parliamentary group for the first time in a western state.[58] After the PDS-WASG merger, The Left continued to make gains in what was the western Germany, entering the state parliaments in Lower Saxony, Hesse, Hamburg and recently in North Rhine-Westphalia In Hesse, state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti sought to form a minority government with the Greens, which would have required the support of The Left's new parliamentary group despite a campaign promise not to cooperate with The Left. This would have been the first time that The Left formed any alliance with a government in a western state. The SPD and Left state organisations ratified an agreement that guaranteed The Left's acceptance of an SPD-Green government which Left deputies would support with their votes. The move was controversial in the SPD. Some of the party's representatives in parliament rejected cooperation with a party they considered extremist. After months of debate, the proposed government was scheduled to be brought to a vote in the Hessian Landtag on 4 November 2008. On the eve of the vote, four SPD deputies broke with party discipline and declared they would vote against Ypsilanti, effectively blocking an SPD-led government.[59] As a result, new elections did take place in January 2009. Ypsilanti stepped down as the SPD's chief candidate, and she has been replaced by party deputy Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.[60][61] In this election the Linke gained 0.3% on the result one year earlier (now 5.4%), staying in parliament (the SPD lost 13%, the Greens gained 6.2%).[62] The Left contested an election in Bavaria for the first time in the September 2008 Bavaria state election. It garnered 4.3 percent of the vote, just short of the 5 percent necessary to win seats in the Landtag. In October 2008 the Left Party nominated Tatort actor and activist Peter Sodann as their candidate for the 2009 presidential election.[63] Since the German president is chosen by the Bundesversammlung, consisting of all members of the Bundestag and an equal number of Bundesrat-selected delegates, Sodann did not win but he got 91 of the 1223 votes cast (The Left had 90 delegates).[citation needed] Lothar Bisky Internal caucuses The Left Party has a number of internal caucuses, most often referred to as platforms or forums. The Anti-capitalist Left (Antikapitalistische Linke)[64] represents those critical of participation in coalition governments. They believe that government participation should be dependent on a set of minimum criteria (including no privatizations, no war involvement, and no cuts in social welfare spending). The grouping seeks to position the party firmly against any form of capitalism. Prominent representatives of this group are Sahra Wagenknecht, Tobias Pflüger, Cornelia Hirsch, and Ulla Jelpke. The Communist Platform (German: Kommunistische Plattform, KPF) was originally formed as a tendency of the PDS. It is less critical of German Democratic Republic than other groupings, and it upholds orthodox Marxist positions. A "strategic goal" of the KPF is "building a new socialist society, using the positive experiences of real socialism and to learn from mistakes" [65] Its primary leader is Sahra Wagenknecht, who is on the National Committee of the Left Party. In May 2008 the Platform had around 961 members[66] — around 1% of the party's national membership. The Socialist Left (Sozialistische Linke) was formed in August 2006 and includes keynesian economics-leftists and reform communists, as well as the revolutionary socialist current Marx21. The group seeks to orient the party toward the labour movement. Many leaders of the Socialist Left were former members of the WASG. Socialist Left sympathizes with the Dutch Socialist Party and the Italian Communist Refoundation Party. The Emancipatory Left (Emanzipatorische Linke, Ema. Li)[67] is a current that endorses libertarian socialist principles. It backs a decentralized society and support social movements. Ema. Li's spokesperson is Christoph Spehr, spokesman of The Left in Bremen. Other representatives are the Chairwoman of the party Katja Kipping and Caren Lay. The Democratic Socialist Forum (Forum demokratischer Sozialismus)[68] is a democratic socialist faction that was originally part of the PDS. It supports participation in state coalition governments and was programmatically close to the Reform Left Network. The Reform Left Network (Netzwerk Reformlinke)[69] was originally formed in 2003 as a tendency in the PDS. It promoted social-democratic positions and supported cooperation with the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Alliance '90/The Greens. A prominent member of the network was Petra Pau, vice president of the Bundestag. This caucus is now defunct.[citation needed] In addition to the main platforms, a number of far-left groups have aligned with the Left Party and its predecessors, the PDS and WASG, including Linksruck (now known as Marx21). The Trotskyist Socialist Alternative (SAV) has also joined, but the applications of some of its leaders, including Lucy Redler, for party membership were initially rejected (Redler has since become a member). Der Funke, supporters of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) in Germany, pursues entrist tactics in Die Linke, while the Fourth International-affiliated International Socialist Organisation (ISO), which was formed through a merger of the International Socialist Left (ISL) and the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSB), also works inside the party. Other left-wing groups, such as the German Communist Party (DKP), have formed local alliances with The Left but have not joined the party. The Association for Solidarity Perspectives (VsP) also supports Die Linke. References ^ "Bundestagswahl treibt Parteien Mitglieder zu". 20 October 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2017..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output .citation qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-maintdisplay:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em ^ ab Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Germany". Parties and Elections in Europe. ^ ab Michelle Cini; Nieves Perez-Solorzano Borragan, eds. (2013). "Glossary". European Union Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 387. ISBN 978-0-19-969475-4. ^ ab Michael Keating; David McCrone, eds. (2013). The Crisis of Social Democracy in Europe. Edinburgh University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0748665822. ^ Die Programmatik der LINKEN ^ Die Linke party wins German votes by standing out from crowd. The Guardian. Author - Kate Connolly. Published 17 September 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2017. ^ Antimilitarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements. p.130. Author - Cynthia Cockburn. Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in 2012. Retrieved via Google books on 14 February 2017. ^ Party Members and Activists. p.85. Published by Routledge. Edited by Emilie van Haute and Anika Gauja. Published 24 April 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2017. Retrieved via Google Books. ^ Germans want Donald Trump to pull US troops out of Germany, poll finds. 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ISBN 978-3-642-38724-1. ^ "Wahl zum 18.Deutschen Bundestag am 22.September 2013 - vorläufiges Ergebnis". Retrieved 2013-09-23. ^ "Offen extremistische Zusammenschlüsse in der Partei DIE LINKE". ^ Verfassungsschutzbericht reports, 2007–2015, Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz ^ "SPD hat wieder die meisten Partei-Mitglieder: Sozialdemokraten überholen CDU". huffingtonpost.de. Retrieved 2014-11-23. ^ "Soziale Zusammensetzung der Mitgliedschaft der Partei DIE LINKE". bpb.de. Retrieved 2014-11-23. ^ "Writers warn about Linkspartei". signandsight. 2005-07-01. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ ZEIT ONLINE GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. "Präsidentenwahl: Linke, wählt Gauck!". Zeit.de. Retrieved 2012-06-03.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) ^ Linke verhindert Gauck, Wulff wird Präsident, Manager Magazin ^ von Markus Ehrenberg. "Tagesschau: Luc Jochimsen? Oder doch Lukrezia?". Tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Nicht wählbar": Linke ist gegen Gauck, n-tv, 28 June 2010 ^ ab Streit über Präsidentenwahl: Linke verteidigt Anti-Gauck-Kurs, Spiegel Online, 1 July 2010 ^ "Bundespräsident: Gabriel: Lafontaine-Kritik an Gauck peinlich". Focus.de. 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2012-02-20. ^ ab Gauck-Boykott vertieft die Gräben, n24.de ^ "Bundespräsidentenwahl: Politik am Rande des Nervenzusammenbruchs". Stern. De. 2010-07-01. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Bundesversammlung: Gauck soll am 18. März gewählt werden - Linke erwägt eigene Nominierung". Tagesspiegel.de. 2012-02-20. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Gabriel greift Linke an: Betonköpfe, die Stasi-Aufklärung unanständig finden". Focus. 2012-02-26. ^ "Gabriel: Linke lehnt Gauck wegen Sympathie für DDR ab". Agence France-Presse. 2012-02-26. ^ "Linkspartei diskutiert über Lötzsch-Nachfolge". tagesschau.de. 2012-01-13. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Final result of the Election to the German Bundestag 2013". The Federal Returning Officer. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013. ^ "Übersicht". bundeswahlleiter.de. Archived from the original on 2015-07-05. Retrieved 2014-11-23. ^ ab Steve Rosenberg (2009-09-24). "German hard left set to gain ground". BBC News. Retrieved 2009-09-28. ^ "Our alternative: Social, democratic and peacemaking reforms to overcome capitalism" Programmatic Points, part III Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine ^ "Bundestag paves way for Lisbon Treaty ratification". EurActive.com. 2009-09-09. Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2009-09-28. ^ Gregor Gysi. (2014). Europe and the Crisis in Ukraine: Is the International Community facing a new East-West Conflict? Archived June 17, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, VIII(3), 75-87. ^ "Niemiecka partia Lewica: Ukraina nie powinna dostawać pieniędzy od UE, dopóki rządzą nią faszyści". wiadomosci.gazeta.pl. 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January 2008, accessed 16 March 2008 ^ Neue Linke verunsichert Verfassungsschützer Archived 2009-01-22 at the Wayback Machine, netzeitung.de, 18 June 2007, accessed 16 March 2008 ^ "Alexander Dobrindt: CSU-Generalsekretär bringt Verbot der Linken ins Spiel" (in German). Handelsblatt. 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ [1][dead link] ^ "Bundesverfassungsgericht verbietet Überwachung von Bodo Ramelow". tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved 2014-11-23. ^ "Verfassungsschutz reagiert auf Urteil: Linken-Abgeordnete ohne Beobachtung - tagesschau.de". tagesschau.de. Retrieved 2014-11-23. ^ Sächsischer Landtag (2012-04-13). "Sächsischer Landtag feiert Tag der Deutschen Einheit – Festredner Joachim Gauck: "Freiheit wagen – Verantwortung leben"". Landtag.sachsen.de. Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Kandidaten für das Amt des Bundespräsidenten: Warum "Die Linke" Joachim Gauck nicht wählt" (in German). Bild.de. 2010-06-04. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Germany after the Bremen election," The Economist (17 May 2007). ^ "A mess in Hesse," The Economist (6 November 2008). ^ "Ypsilanti verzichtet auf Spitzenkandidatur," Der Spiegel (8 November 2008). ^ Christian Teevs, "Hessens Grüne schwenken auf Anti-CDU-Kurs," Der Spiegel (12 November 2008). ^ Landeswahlleiter, "Final Result of the election (Endgültiges Ergebnis der Landtagswahl)(PDF)," Staatsanzeiger für das Land Hessen (16 February 2009). ^ "Peter Sodann wäre ein Bundespräsident des Volkes," statement by Bisky, Gysi and Lafontaine (14 October 2008). ^ "Willkommen (Netzwerk Antikapitalistische Linke)". Antikapitalistische-linke.de. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ Beschluss der Landeskonferenz der Kommunistischen Plattform der Partei DIE LINKE des Landes Brandenburg vom 29.9.2007[dead link] ^ "2008 Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution" (PDF). Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. 2009. p. 144. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2010-09-26. Fn 122: KPF-Mitteilungen (KPF Bulletin), issue 12/2008, May 2008, p. 25. ^ "Emanzipatorische Linke". Emanzipatorische-linke.de. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Wir stehen für emanzipatorische, radikalreformerische Politik sowie den demokratischen Sozialismus". Forum-ds.de. Retrieved 2012-06-03. ^ "Netzwerk Reformlinke". sozialisten.de. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-02-25. Literature Dominic Heilig, Mapping the European Left: Socialist Parties in the EU, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, April 2016 David F. Patton. Out of the East: From PDS to Left Party in Unified Germany (State University of New York Press; 2011) Hubertus Knabe, Honeckers Erben. Die Wahrheit über Die Linke. Propyläen, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-549-07329-2 Elo, Kimmo (2008). "The Left Party and the Long-Term Developments of the German Party System". German Politics and Society. 26 (88): 50–68. doi:10.3167/gps.2008.260303. Hough, Dan; Koß, Michael (2009). "Populism Personified or Reinvigorated Reformers? The German Left Party in 2009 and Beyond". German Politics and Society. 27 (91): 76–91. doi:10.3167/gps.2009.270206. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Die Linke. Official website (in German) Programmatic Points Ingar Solty, The New German Left Party, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Dan Hough, Michael Koss and Jonathan Olsen: The Left Party in Contemporary German Politics. London: Palgrave, 2007 Ingar Solty: Transformation of the German Political System and European Historical Responsibility of the German Left Party, Das Argument 271, 3/2007, pp. 329-47 (in German) Victor Grossman: A Huge Step Towards Left Unity in Germany, Monthly Review Zine Ingo Schmidt: The Left Opposition in Germany. Why is the Left So Weak When So Many Look For Political Alternatives?, in Monthly Review, May 2007 A New European Socialist Movement? The Rise of the Left Party in Germany by Ingar Solty and Frank Deppe, in Toronto, Canada, 18 March 2008 Was the German Election a Turning Point?, Toronto, Canada, 13 November 2009