After much hesitation, Sahra Wagenknecht left the Left in October 2023. The party has recently suffered losses in elections – but the number of members is growing.
The Left has gained thousands of new members since the break with Sahra Wagenknecht. After Wagenknecht announced the founding of her own party BSW at the end of October, the Left reported that 7,640 new members joined. Even taking into account the number of people leaving, the party has grown year-on-year. While the party had 50,251 members at the time of Wagenknecht’s departure, it currently has 52,127. This corresponds to an increase of 3.7 percent. The ARD “Tagesschau” was the first to report on the figures.
Party leader Janine Wissler spoke of a “huge wave of new members” that was encouraging and motivating. “Now it’s about activating the new members in order to renew the party and to return to the Bundestag as a parliamentary group in 2025.” The separation from Wagenknecht was apparently the right time for many to join the Left.
The Left has performed poorly in several recent elections. In the European elections at the beginning of June, it received only 2.7 percent of the vote – about half as many as five years previously. In 2009, the Left still had a good 78,000 members.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
