New heads, new start – that’s what the left is hoping for after a difficult time and poor election results. A lot of work awaits the new top duo.
The journalist Ines Schwerdtner and the former Bundestag member Jan van Aken are the new chairmen of the Left. The new dual leadership was elected with a large majority at a federal party conference in Halle. The two succeed Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler, who are withdrawing after a series of electoral defeats.
The party is in an existential crisis after the wing around former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht split off. Nationwide, the Left is only at three to four percent in surveys. The declared goal is to return to the Bundestag in 2025.
Hundreds of thousands of doors ring
After their election, Van Aken and Schwerdtner announced that they would be ringing hundreds of thousands of doorbells with volunteers over the next few weeks. People should describe their specific needs and wishes, whether rent, high prices or the closure of a hospital. The answers would be systematically evaluated, said van Aken.
The Left will then decide on its two focus topics for the election campaign, such as rent caps or citizens’ insurance. “We will know exactly what it will be in a few weeks,” said van Aken.
Against the “obscenely rich”
When he was introduced, van Aken said he wanted to give the country’s majority a voice and take on the “obscenely rich.” The left should give hope again. “I’m tired of telling people how bad things are for them,” said van Aken. He received 88 percent of 542 votes. A largely unknown opposing candidate, Emanuel Schaaf, received 19 votes.
Schwerdtner had no opponent for the female position in the dual leadership. She received 79.8 percent of the votes. In her application speech she said: “We are the opposite of fear, we are hope.” What is needed for the left is clarity, focus and credibility. She wants a left that is also a voice of the East.
A journalist with an East-West biography
Ines Schwerdtner was born in Werdau, Saxony, in 1989 and moved with her family to Hamburg as a child, where her parents were looking for a professional future. “The dividing line between East and West also runs through my life,” writes the 35-year-old on her website.
Schwerdtner studied political science and English in Berlin and later completed his master’s degree in political theory in Frankfurt am Main. As a journalist, she wrote about the left and its conflicts. At some point she decided to become active for the party herself instead of just writing about its eventual end, she says.
Not a classic party career
“I don’t have a traditional party career behind me,” she said when she was introduced. But: “I came to a socialist party as a socialist.” She only joined the left in the summer of 2023, shortly before she was nominated as a candidate in the European elections. Coming in fifth place on the list, she missed out on entering the EU Parliament.
In her own words, Schwerdtner has felt connected to the Left since 2007, when Berlin Bundestag member Gesine Lötzsch took her on a youth trip to Catalonia. When Lötzsch withdraws from the Bundestag in 2025, Schwerdtner wants to defend her direct mandate in the Berlin-Lichtenberg constituency.
As a boy, altar boy
Jan van Aken was in the Bundestag from 2009 to 2017. The Reinbeker native represented the Hamburg-Altona constituency. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and promoted arms control. In his own words, he left because he is fundamentally in favor of limiting his mandate. It is unclear whether he wants to run for the Bundestag again or even become the Left’s top candidate. As of today, he said, he had no plans to do so.
The 63-year-old is a biologist and says he learned how to organize campaigns at Greenpeace. From 2004 to 2006 he was a United Nations biological weapons inspector. Van Aken has been on the left since 2007 and was temporarily deputy federal chairman. In his application speech he spoke of the fact that he used to be an altar boy: What is charity for Catholics is called solidarity for leftists.
“We rock the republic”
After his time in parliament, van Aken worked at the party-affiliated Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, including in Tel Aviv. A few weeks ago his book “Words instead of Weapons” was published, in which he promotes diplomatic solutions to conflicts like those in Ukraine. He calls himself “a dove of peace with the hoodie.”
While Schwerdtner appeared rather quietly, van Aken thrilled the party conference with the slogan: “We are rocking the republic and next year we will enter the Bundestag again with great strength, and then things will really get going.”
Schwerdtner and van Aken did not name possible coalition partners. You can get things done without taking part in the government, said van Aken, referring to Greenpeace campaigns. “It’s possible. It’s just a question of strength, focus and clear strategies.”
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.
