Top duo of the Left: Will these two stop the decline?

The Left is heading into the next federal election with the top duo Jan van Aken and Heidi Reichinnek. At her presentation on Sunday in Berlin, van Aken announced a class war for the election campaign – it was about “us down here against those up there”. The left’s election goal was to finish ahead of the “anti-social FDP”.

The 63-year-old van Aken, who lives in Hamburg, has been one of the two federal leaders of the Left since October, and the 36-year-old Reichinnek, who lives in Osnabrück, has been one of the two chairmen of the Left group in the Bundestag since February.

In the current legislative period, the left had weakened through numerous power struggles, culminating in the founding of the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). Since then, the Left has no longer had parliamentary group status in the Bundestag, but is now just a group. Left leader Ines Schwerdtner said the decision for her co-chairman van Aken and Reichinnek as chairwoman of the Bundestag group was made unanimously. “We are going into this election campaign united and united.”

Reichinnek thanked you for the trust and said: “We will definitely implement this trust.” Van Aken said, “these times need a left, a strong left in Germany.” There is a risk that the AfD will gain further strength and with it “even more fascism”. Under Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), there was also the threat of merciless cuts in social services.

For the top left-wing duo, “we are for a country in which the strong are there for the weaker. Something must be taken away from the “indecently super-rich”. “That’s why we are in favor of there being no more billionaires in Germany at all “Van Aken said.

According to the leading duo, the Left is aiming to overcome the five percent hurdle and, according to Reichinnek, to win “at least three direct mandates, but actually five.” This should be particularly successful in Berlin and Leipzig. Van Aken said that the Left definitely wanted to “land in front of this anti-social FDP”.

In connection with the desired return to the Bundestag, Van Aken also referred to the commitment of the leftists Gregor Gysi, Dietmar Bartsch and Bodo Ramelow, who were referred to as “silver curls” because of their advanced age, in the federal election campaign. “We are in close contact with the Silberlocke mission.” The three wanted to comment at the appropriate time.

Gysi recently announced at the Left party conference that all three would start an “Aktion Silberlocke” and apply for direct mandates in the next federal election – which was only expected at the time in September 2025. While there is nothing standing in the way of Gysi and Bartsch running for office, Ramelow continues to be Prime Minister in Thuringia, as a new government has not yet been formed there after the state elections.

Van Aken announced that he would aim for first place on the Left list in Hamburg, while Reichinnek is aiming for first place on the list in Lower Saxony. In party circles on the Left, it was emphasized that Reichinnek, who had only been a member of the Bundestag since the last federal election, had brought the group into “constructive working waters” under her chairmanship. Both top candidates have great recognition from the left across the spectrum, and the tongues of both have “the potential to shake up politics.”