10-25-05, 7:52 am
The Left Party.PDS scored an important success in the general elections of 18 September: 8.7% was the best result the party ever achieved which sent it back into the Bundestag. After three years of only being represented by two MPs it will be the fourth strongest parliamentary party after the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU at 35.2%), the Social Democrats (SPD at 24.3%) and the Liberals (FDP at 9.8%) and before the Green Alliance (8.1%) which was in government together with the SPD under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. In the light of the election outcome of 18 September – the Christian Democrats led by CDU Chair Angela Merkel only won by the skin of their teeth due to losses throughout the country – the CDU/CSU only scored the third worst result since 1949 which entailed the loss of 22 seats compared to the last term and clearly missed the change of power they had always demanded. While the previous SPD and Green government under Schröder missed a majority the outcome for the Left Party. PDS was all the more remarkable because it scored a considerable increase in votes much like the middle-class FDP.
The reasons why the Left Party has been so successful are – as reported in Newsletter 4/05 – that the PDS has teamed up with the WASG (Work and social justice election alternative) under the former SPD Chair and ex-Finance Minister in the Schröder government, Oskar Lafontaine, which derive their support mostly from trade union and left social democratic circles. Election observers and analysts in the major media also attribute the Left Party’s successes, above all, to many citizens seeing the Left Party as the only force in parliament which not only champions social justice prior to elections but also permanently. People are also in the grip of fears that, due to the experience of the past few years, the gap between rich and poor will widen and poverty will rise. Apparently more and more people realise that neither of the big parties – be it the CDU/CSU or the SPD – is able to find ways out of the deep crisis of the capitalist system and usher in effective steps toward overcoming one of its worst evils despite constantly talking about reducing mass unemployment. Among other things the socialist daily ‘Neues Deutschland’ wrote on the day after the election debacle for the major parties that the socialists managed to win over 970,000 former SPD voters, almost as many as all the other parties taken together. “One important factor should be that the Left Party was seen as the force that most likely represented the best opposition to social decline.“
Gysi: No partner for policy against social decline in sight
At a press conference after election Sunday Gregor Gysi, one of the two Left Party top candidates, said that his party refused to cooperate with all the other parties because it saw no other partner in the Bundestag for its policy against social decline, against the redistribution from the bottom to the top and against military operations abroad. He also rebuffed any toleration of an SPD and Green minority government and any left help for re-electing Chancellor Schröder. The other top candidate, Oskar Lafontaine, announced that the Left Party sought to revise the labour market reform known as Hartz IV, to terminate the Afghanistan mission of the Bundeswehr and to initiate legislation for minimum wages and wealth tax. Left Party campaign manager, Bodo Ramelow, noted: “We have created the conditions for a new position of an all-German left party and received confirmation from the voters.“
Standoff between centre-right and centre-left parties
The extremely narrow lead of the CDU/CSU and FDP over of the SPD and Greens means that neither political camp has a majority for government. What is possible now – and hectic talks started immediately after election Sunday – is a ‘grand coalition’ of the CDU/CSU and SPD or a ‘traffic-light coalition’ (colours represent parties in Germany: SPD = red, FDP = yellow, Green = green, CDU/CSU = black); a coalition of SPD, Left Party and the Greens was thrown in as an option but readily repudiated by all three parties.
How these talks will end is hard to predict as all parties ruled out cooperation with any party of the other camp. In late September the main interest was whether or not the CDU/CSU and SPD will manage to form a ‘grand coalition’. Both Merkel and Schröder announced their claim for Chancellor immediately after the election results had been publicised. It will be up to German President Köhler to decide whom to propose for Chancellor in the Bundestag on the basis of the results achieved in the talks.
The election programme, which a Left Party congress adopted on 27 August for the general elections, is entitled 'For a new social idea“. Taking part in the debate on the programme, which was adopted with only two nay votes, were the two top candidates, Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine. Party Chair Lothar Bisky and campaign manager Bodo Ramelow had substantiated the document.
Honorary Chair Hans Modrow spoke to the participants opening the session. Initially he noted that it had been a long time since Marx and Engels spoke of a spectre haunting Europe in the Communist Manifesto. 'These days one could have the impression that another spectre is haunting Germany: the Left Party.PDS. Even ‘Der Spiegel’ rediscovered Marx.“
Messages outlasting election successes needed
Further on Hans Modrow underlined: „Even though we must make every effort to reach our goals – what we really need is messages that outlast success in elections. By my mind they should be: A process for forming a socialist Left in Germany has been started; it should be more than just marrying the Left Party. PDS and the WASG in organisational terms.
The core and outcome of the process lie in the joint and equal actions of the Left Party.PDS and WASG. Putting flesh on the bones of a united party must, however, involve other left forces and movements too. And we should see ourselves as part of a socialist Left in Europe and act in solidarity with it.“
From Die Linke, the newsletter of the The Left Party
