A Conference of Strife and Schism: Germany's Deeply Divided Left Party

Not too long ago, Germany's far-left Left Party was on the rise. Now, after a disappointing showing in the European elections, its future is uncertain. Many members fear that skirmishes between different wings could escalate into open warfare ahead of German elections this autumn.

When a party is deeply divided sometimes incantations of unity can help. That is what many in Germany's far-left Left Party's leadership seem to be hoping as they head into this weekend's crucial party conference. "This can, this must be a huge birthday celebration for the party," was the plea by party manager Dietmar Barsch in his Internet column.

People attend a campaign event of the German left-wing Left Party (Die Linke) in Berlin.

Foto: REUTERS

The birthday marks two years since foundation of the Left Party, the result of a merger between the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) -- the successor party to the East German communists -- and the WASG, a party founded in 2005 by disgruntled former members of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). But two years later, the Left Party seems to be unsure of what it actually wants to be or what direction it wants to go in.

This has been made abundantly clear by the motions waiting to be addressed at the conference this weekend in Berlin. Should the party demand that NATO be replaced by a "collective security system that includes Russia," as suggested by the party leadership? Or should the party program instead call for the "dissolution of NATO," according to one proposal submitted by around three dozen comrades, including several representatives in the federal and state parliaments.

And what is the Left Party's relationship to capitalism? In the current draft party program ahead of September's general election, capitalism is described as "the greatest enemy of the people's happiness." For some party members even that doesn't go far enough.

Even the very word capitalism creates problems. It doesn't really appear as a separate term in the campaign manifesto, instead phrases such as "predatory capitalism," "financial capitalism" or "today's capitalism" are used. For the party's so-called "realist" wing -- moderates who would like to keep the door open for eventual cooperation with the center-left Social Democrats -- these attacks on capitalism are far from helpful. They want to cut the whole capitalism-is-the-enemy-of-happiness section altogether.

Pragmatists versus Purists

So which factions will win the day at the conference? Most of the party finds it hard to make any predictions because the balance of power within the Left Party is still far from decided. There is a myriad of different factions in the party, often with completely incompatible political views: pragmatists versus purists, those determined to remain in permanent opposition versus those willing to join in government. Party manager Bartsch has called for common sense, saying it doesn't matter which factions in the party come up with the best ideas, what matters is that they all dance to the same tune. "They should step back as individuals, so that we can be strong as a team. That's what it's all about."

This seems like wishful thinking. The recent decision to leave the party by realists such as Carl Wechselberg and Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann has revealed the deep splits. During the conference to prepare for the European elections in February the schism was already evident. There were cheers when Kaufmann and Andre Brie failed to be selected as candidates. After Brie recently criticized party boss Oskar Lafontaine in a guest commentary for SPIEGEL, the reaction from some of his party comrades was bitter and the attacks on him were particularly personal.

"The fight amongst the party members is not changing society, it is just frustrating the comrades," Bodo Ramelow, the party's deputy floor leader in the German parliament, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He called a meeting of the parliamentary faction on Tuesday which lasted an unprecedented three and a half hours. According to one person who took part, "a lot of steam had to be let off."

Calls for Party Unity

The meeting was ostensibly about the European elections, which had been particularly disappointing for the Left Party. It only won 7.5 percent of the vote, significantly less than their expectations of 10 percent or more. In most of western Germany, the party didn't even reach the 5 percent hurdle. But the discussion on Tuesday was also about the conflicts of recent weeks and about this weekend's conference.

According to those who attended the meeting it was not Lafontaine but his fellow party boss Gregor Gysi who was the one to raise his voice. Lafontaine, a former leader of the SPD -- and once Germany's finance minister, who left the party after a bitter disagreement with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder -- is at best tolerated by many Left Party members in eastern Germany. It was perhaps significant, then, that instead of Lafontaine it was Gysi, a man who has been something of an icon since the days of the PDS, who loudly appealed for party unity.

The parliamentary faction is an important lightening rod for the mood in the wider party. If things can't go smoothly there, then how can one expect a hastily thrown together party, with all its different wings, to get along? Yet at Tuesday's meeting the parliamentary faction wasn't able to agree on a common line. According to some of those who were at the meeting, members representing the left-wing of the party demanded that it should respond to the poor European results by becoming "even more radical."

And the far-left section of the party, the so-called "Anti-capitalist Left Party" announced on Thursday that the party needed to be "decidedly cheekier, bolder and more radical" in its tone. It said that the party was currently pursuing a "conventional, over-centralized and strictly uniform propaganda campaign that was too quick to knuckle down to the guidelines of the bourgeois media."

One leading member of the party has said that it was "completely open" what direction the party will take at the conference.

A journalist asked Lafontaine on Tuesday if there were still "too many nutters" in the party. The party boss, who has often been infuriated by those who break ranks, simply said: "In every party there are people with different abilities."

The party knows that this conference is vital in the face of the ongoing quarrels. It gives the party the chance to show people that it is ready for the elections in September and hasn't begun to destroy itself.

Yet the delegates are facing a mountain of work this weekend. In total around 1,000 proposals have been submitted to amend the leadership's draft program for the election campaign.