Gysi and Lafontaine have good reason to smile. Their new party is expected to sweep 12 per cent of the vote in September.
The Left Party's rise has been rapid, and it has got commentators' tongues wagging, and centrist politicians running scared. The new party's backbone is the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), lead by Gregor Gysi, which has joined together with Oskar Lafontaine's breakaway Election Alternative for Work and Social Justice party (WASG) to form a new alliance. On Sunday, the PDS voted to adopt a new name, the "Left Party," which the two parties will now share. The hope is to broaden the PDS's appeal, which has traditionally only been strong in eastern German states, where it supplanted the former Communist Party.
The Left Party is hoping to seize on disenchantment with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's reform program and on discontentment with large-scale unemployment in Germany. By joining with Lafontaine's socialist splinter group, the PDS intends to clear the 5 percent hurdle required to enter the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, and it could even form the official opposition, should a grand coalition of Social and Christian Democrats be delivered at the polls in September.
Free-market bastion Die Welt begs the question this morning, "What is more infuriating before an election: to have a swathe of unexpressed political opinions wafting around, or that such opinions take on a meaningful outline?" The paper seems to think that the established political parties would prefer the former option, but the founding of the Left Party means such procrastination and dithering is no longer an option. Across the German political spectrum, German politicians have branded the reactionary socialist program of Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine a "scandal." Conservative leader Edmund Stoiber has almost implored the Social Democrats to tackle the rise of the Left Alliance, and the Social Democrats have leapt on allegations that Lafontaine is a racist "preacher of hate".
However, Die Welt believes the parties should put aside such sensationalism and use The Left Party's rise to their advantage. The conservatives, who have the support of a higher percentage of the electorate, "can claim a mandate for economic reforms." Similarly, "whoever now votes for the Social Democrats, is clearly not voting for a "traditional left" program, or even for a left-wing coalition. In this way, the commentator suggests, The Left Party has helped to deliver political clarity." Such clarity is essential, the paper insists. "German transformation requires that parties that are willing to deliver reform set out clear positions." The parties have a responsibility to attack the "anti-market slogans" of the left, now that resistance to reforms "has transformed itself from a vague rumbling into a recognizable opponent". The battle is now on, the commentator argues, and it must be won.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung echoes the fears of many German conservatives. "The mood in the 'ultra-left' camp must be excellent, in light of their striking opinion poll results," the paper bemoans. However, it goes on to deliver a warning to those intending to vote for the new party (who, if we're honest, in all likelihood aren't reading the FAZ anyway). "The new name rings hollow," the commentator argues, and "the party is constructed on the forgetfulness of its voters. Old socialist slogans, spiced with nationalist undertones, are supposed to catapult the East-West alliance from the stands into the Bundestag -- driven on by the self-promotion of its leaders, Gysi and Lafontaine." What remains to be seen, says the paper, is whether the duly alarmed center parties have the ability to dispel the Left Party's populist "glorification of the past."
Business champion Handelsblatt is not especially enamored by the Left Party, either. "The path is now clear," begins its commentary. "The champions of a defunct social state in the west and an anachronistic socialist state in the east have decided, 16 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to form a marriage of convenience and are equipping themselves to enter the German parliament." This of serious concern, the paper argues. "Election polls indicate that the Left Party is now the strongest political force in the former-East Germany ... Not only economically, but also politically, the former-East and West Germanys are drifting ever further from each other. That cannot leave anyone unmoved; even in the west." The Social Democrats and Greens are "nervous about how to react to the new alliance," the paper believes. "The nonchalance with which Angela Merkel and the conservatives currently believe they can ignore The Left Party, with its 'con-man slogans', could take its bitter revenge on election day." Merkel's plans could come to grief, if the electorate delivers a majority for the Social Democrats, Greens and The Left Party, the paper concludes.
"A new political force to the left of the Social Democrats and the Greens is now a reality", heralds die Tagezeitung, which unsurprisingly for a left-wing newspaper, is more favorable of the Left Party's foundation. "They have succeeded in changing the German political spectrum, in a way not seen since the foundation of the Green Party," its commentary continues. However, the paper is less sure about a far more pressing question -- "What exactly does the party stand for?" This question, the paper believes, "remains open." "It is clear at least that the party does not stand for Marxism," the commentator claims, but little else can be deduced with any clarity. "The protagonists are united in their rejection of the ruling coalition's reforms. They are also united in the intention to put pressure on the Social Democrats from the left." Apart from that, there is little else in the party's program of any substance.
The paper suggests that many people believe that the Bundestag has lacked any real opposition from the left of the political spectrum and that most people who are inclined towards the Left Party see it as the future opposition to a grand coalition. Such a scenario has a certain charm for the new party. Whilst the Social Democrats have to contend with shrinking budget receipts and the loss of further socially insured jobs, "The Left Party can brand this 'un-social' and score points with the disaffected." As yet, The Left Party cannot claim to have a new social platform, but the paper believes the party's chances for entering the Bundestag are good, possibly as the official opposition.
By contrast, Maike Rademaker, writing in Financial Times Deutschland, is not buying into any of the hype. "There is no 'Left Party' -- there is only the party of the East, the Party of Democratic Socialism. A real political alternative was certainly not born this weekend," leads its commentary. In effect the paper brands the apparent union of the left-wing parties as a realpolitik sham. "The Party of Democratic Socialism is an eastern German party, and will remain so," insists the financial daily. It will put up only a few candidates from WASG, and will therefore remain primarily an eastern German party controlled by its pensioner membership. The other political parties only have themselves to blame for the rise of the Left Party, the paper argues. They have, after all, been quite content to ignore economic misery in the east until a couple of months before each election, the commentator alleges. One in five east Germans remains unemployed. "It is no wonder therefore, that a party which campaigns offensively for east Germans, should gain ground."
Rademaker won't accept that the PDS has transformed itself into a national party. "If you call a banana 'a cherry', it's still in fact a banana". The only thing that the PDS will concede to alliance partners WASG is the name of the party itself, he continues. The western WASG doesn't have any electoral platform to speak of. Evidently Rademaker has reached his decision about the PDS: a leopard can't change its spots.
The center-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung is not surprised by the Left Party's increasing attraction to so many Germans, primarily because its strength derives from weaknesses in the other political parties. "It feeds on the feeling shared by many people that the burden of reforms is being disproportionately unloaded on the weakest (in society)." "The ghost has come out of the closet, it is growing quite fast, it has two heads (Gysi and Lafontaine) and it is seeking a place in the next Bundestag," says the commentator.
It has already achieved a remarkable amount. "The election platforms of the Social Democrats and Greens would have looked very different without the new party ... Because the Left Party evidently has the power to animate traditional non-voters ... it has also got the conservatives very nervous ... The Left Party endangers a conservative coalition." Conservatives and Social Democrats alike have much to learn if they are to make up these deficits in time, the paper insists.
Post to other social networks:
Stay informed with our free news services:
| All news from SPIEGEL International | Twitter | RSS |
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2005
All Rights Reserved
Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH
