Last October, Sarah Wagenknecht, who had been Die Linke’s star personality, definitively severed her ties and, followed by nine other MPs, launched an “Alliance” designed to appeal to voters “who abstain or allow themselves to be seduced” by the xenophobic, reactionary slogans of the Allianz für Deutschland (AfD).

It’s difficult to know the full extent of this long-heralded split, which has so far resulted in the departure of several hundred members and the disappearance of Die Linke’s parliamentary group (which no longer had the necessary number of MPs to qualify) and the substantial resources associated with it. No doubt a number of members are still waiting to see what happens next, but it’s clear in any case that Sarah Wagenknecht’s project, inspired by Danish social democracy, is seeking support in other waters.

The split was therefore not in itself a weakening, and was even seen as a clarification.

Shortly afterwards, in November, the Die Linke congress was held in Augsburg to adopt a program for the 2024 European elections and to nominate its candidates.

The organizational mastery and know-how of the “Karl Liebknecht House” apparatus ensured a “new start” atmosphere in which, as usual, the quest for unanimity above all else and a facade of harmony left little room for critical reflection and assessment.

The leadership was able to announce 700 new memberships or re-adhesions, while the party voted overwhelmingly in favor of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, denouncing the exactions of the Israeli army. In a climate of state consensus in support of Israel, this is no mean feat. This does not sit well with the party’s right-wing, which only dreams of government coalitions with the SPD (which are a reality, under varying conditions, in Thuringia, Berlin and Bremen).

A success that would position the anti-capitalist left of the party favorably if it did not denounce support for the aggressor Israel and the aggressed Ukraine with the same virulence. Since it is taking the exact opposite line from the right wing of the party and government, it is clearly convinced that it is waging a just campaign against rearmament, the military budget and arms dealers. But by denying the people, the workers’ movement and the left in Ukraine the solidarity they are demanding in the face of Russian imperialist aggression, by denying them the means of armed and unarmed resistance, Die Linke’s left doesn’t want to see that it is placing itself here on the same ground as... Sarah Wagenknecht.

Pierre Vandevoorde