The left is dismantling itself – and not just in Berlin

Opinion

So now it has happened. With the departure of several former cabinet members and other top officials, the Berlin Left has officially imploded.

The process not only plunges the regional association into chaos. It exacerbates the existential crisis of the entire party. The federal leadership, which was newly elected just a few days ago, is facing the next major debacle. Instead of the much-vaunted new beginning, the parliamentary end of the Left has moved closer once again.

Departure of the pragmatic wing

With the former senators Klaus Lederer and Sebastian Scheel, the ex-senator Elke Breitenbach, the former parliamentary group leader Carsten Schatz and the budget politician Sebastian Schlüsselburg, only representatives of the pragmatic, compromise-ready, realpolitik wing are going. It can be assumed that they do not want to harm their previous party.

The fact that they still see no other path for themselves shows how deep the rift is that runs through the left. And he shows that the legend that the party’s decline had everything to do with Sahra Wagenknecht was never true.

The argument continues

Even after the BSW split off, the internal fighting continued. The party leaders wear themselves out in the endless committee meetings. The group of representatives in the Bundestag, which had merged into a group, only worked with each other to a limited extent – and certainly not with the party executive committee.

In addition, there was a partly unclear, partly diffuse way of dealing with the wars of that time. No matter what formulaic compromises were decided: the left was never able to bring itself to unquestioned solidarity towards Ukraine and Israel.

The fact that the state party in Berlin recently failed to even speak out unconditionally against anti-Semitism is now leading to a break. We have “reached a point at which irreconcilable positions on political issues that are central to our self-image have become entrenched,” it says in the resignation statement. The “necessary factual and content-related clarification” does not take place.

The exodus of the left

Lederer, Breitenbach and the others are not alone. Rather, they are part of a real exodus. In the past few days, several state politicians and a Saxony-Anhalt state parliament member had left the party. The mayor of Frankfurt (Oder) resigned in June.

What they all have in common is that they currently do not believe the party is capable of renewal. And they are right. After the federal leadership commented on the latest departures “with great regret,” they added the latest yes-but variant again.

“The Left opposes any form of anti-Semitism,” says the party executive’s statement. This is followed by a double allegation: Solidarity ends where “the war crimes of the Israeli army are applauded.”

With these constant relativizations, the left will not find its way out of its crisis. On the contrary: she truly deserves it.