Rania as a junior partner of The new left party that is to be created by a process of fusion between the Left The Left Party in Germany - that is the ex-PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) supported by the WASG (Alternative for Jobs and Social Justice) - has become
political force in Parliament.
We won 8.7 per cent of the votes (and 54 seats), more than the Greens who got 8.1 per cent (they had got 8.6 per cent in 2002). It is no exaggeration to speak of a small political earthquake.
In 2002, the PDS only won 4 per cent of the vote and did not manage to reach the threshold of 5 per cent (necessary to qualify for seats under proportional representation).
Since then the party had only been represented in the Bundestag by two MPs directly elected in their constituencies.
In fact, the PDS was well on the way to becoming an "Eastern" party, and furthermore one with a declining electoral base because of its participation in regional governments in Berlin and Mecklenburg-West Pomerresponsibility for the implementation of the austerity and anti-social policies of neo-liberalised social democracy.
Following on the success of the WASG in the regional elections in North RhineWestphalia in May (2.2 per per cent of the vote in 2002. cent of the vote, compared to 0.9 per cent for the PDS) and the initiative taken by left SPD leader Oskar Lafontaine in proposing unity WASG, the possibility of an electoral became clear.
Everything had to be done in great haste because of the Left Party was getting up to initiative of Chancellor 11 per cent. Gerhard Schröder (SPD), who had posed the "question of confidence" while the leadership of the SPD organizing his own "defeat" succeeded in creating a in the vote in order for there
be early electons on September 18th.
This forward flight, which was supposed to put a stop to social mobilizations, criticism within the SPD and the creation of a new political force on the left, ended in a defeat of the government parties.
It was certainly the unitary dynamic to the left of the SPD and the Greens that changed the political relationship of forces.
The SPD and the CDU/CSU (Christian conservatives) had each got 38.5 This time, the SPD went down to 34.3 per cent and the CDU/CSU to 35.2 per cent.
Not long before the elecand joining the tions, in the opinion polls on voting intentions, the breakthrough SPD's decline had been even more dramatic: it was below 30 per cent and the But during the final two weeks before the elections,
NK OZA which could only lead to disappointment and failure.
(right to left) Lafontaine, Lotzer and Gysi celebrate the results polarization against the CDU/CSU and the liberals of the FDP, by arguing that the SPD, while fighting for "the necessary reforms of the Welfare State", would be the party of social equity, whereas the CDU/CSU and the FDP would be the parties of social injustice and brutality towards ordinary
In view of what were the real policies of the SPDGreen it was really a masterpiece of demagogy!
As Oskar Lafontaine and Gregor Gysi, the leading candidates of the Left Party, had announced and repeated in the final phase of the electoral battle, the vote to the left of the neo-liberal cartel of the established parties was also a "useful vote" in blocking the road to a "black-yellow" government headed by Angela Merkel, formed by the Christian conservatives and the liberals.
The SPD and the Greens on their own couldn't have done that. This fact indicates that the political map of Germany is undergoing a lasting change.
In addition, the 9.8 per cent for the FDP, which was advocating the most ferocious neo-liberal measures indicates a double polarization, to the right and to the left, to the detriment of the "big parties".
For the moment, absolutely unclear what the next government will be Neither "black-yellow" nor "red-green' has a majority in the Bundestag.
All the established parties rule out an alliance with the Left Party, whose representatives, besides, exclude any governmental collaboration with the parties responsible for neo-liberal policies. Gerhard Schröder, right took everyone by surprise by saying that he would continue to head the government. With who?
The leader of the FDP, Guido Westerwelle, on his part ruled out co-governing with the SPD and the Greens.
MANUEL KELLNER will be speaking at Socialist
Resistance meetings in London on
Wednesday 12 October at 7.30pm at Indian
YMCA, Fitzroy square, London WI (Warren st
7.30pm at Bennetts Bar, Bennetts Hill,
Birmingham City Centre.
The CDU/CSU has begun to negotiate with the Greens with a perspective of possibly forming a government with them and the FDP. What spectacle! Nevertheless, the most likely outcome is a "grand coalition" of the CDU/CSU and the SPD, but in that case Schroder couldn't remain Chancellor...
The electoral breakthrough of the Left Party marks a historic date for the workers' movement in Germany. For the working class and the poorest and most exploited layers, what is at stake is the possibility of reconquering class independence on the political level.
To do that requires adopting an attitude of firm opposition, breaking with logic of co-government and of co-responsibility, encouraging extra-parliamentary mobilizations and developing an anti-capitalist strategy.
The new left party that is to be created by a process of away on Sunday evening, fusion between the Left Party and the WASG must avoid at all costs going down the road of adaptation, which could only lead to disappointment and failure. • Manuel Kellner is a member of the Left Party in Cologne and an editor of Sozialistische Zeitung. Hear more about it tube) and in Birmingham on Thursday 13 October