Save the left in short: three silver locks for the party

The Thuringian state parliament, a day in session last week: The acting prime minister took a cappuccino from the machine. Now he sits at a table in the canteen and tries not to formally confirm what has long been obvious: he, Bodo Ramelow, 66 years old and the only left-wing head of government, wants to be in the Bundestag again for his party. To where he was before from 2005 to 2009.

“There are two ways in which we as a party can be well represented in parliament,” says Ramelow. “And we have to secure these two paths.” But: “We will comment on this on Wednesday.”

An appointment has been booked for this Wednesday at the Berlin Federal Press Conference under the title: “Project Silberlocke is getting started.” Gregor Gysi and Dietmar Bartsch are scheduled to appear alongside Ramelow. Then the three men will officially announce their direct candidacies for the Bundestag. Party rescue instead of retirement.

In the shared chat group on Signal, messages have been going back and forth for weeks, sometimes every minute. The three want to discuss the final details on Tuesday afternoon at a fine Italian restaurant in Berlin-Mitte.

Gysi came up with the name of the mission, regardless of the fact that he himself is noticeably bald. It was at the federal party conference in Halle in October when he announced: “That means that these three old gentlemen and comrades and guys will then fully intervene in the election campaign.”

In the weeks that followed, the strategy crystallized. On the one hand, the party will fight to return to the Bundestag with a party strength of more than five percent. On the other hand, in the very likely event that this does not work, as in the 2021 election, the direct mandate clause should apply.

The previous traffic light coalition had actually abolished this exception with its electoral law reform, but it was then reactivated by the Federal Constitutional Court. Now the Left only needs to win at least three constituencies in order to be represented in parliament according to their second votes.

Gregor Gysi in the Berlin-Treptow-Köpenick constituency, MP Gesine Lötzsch in Berlin-Lichtenberg and Sören Pellmann in Leipzig achieved this a good three years ago. Thanks to them, the party remained in the Bundestag with 39 members, even though it missed the five percent threshold with 4.9 percent.

This time too, Gysi and Pellmann want to win their direct mandates again, while the new party leader Ines Schwertner is expected to win in the previous Lötzsch constituency. But whether this will succeed is uncertain. Thanks to competition from the break-off of the BSW and internal disputes, the left is only at 3 to 4 percent nationwide and has virtually imploded in its previous bastion of East Germany.

This is where the Silberlocke campaign comes in: In addition to the 76-year-old Gysi, the former Bundestag faction leader Dietmar Bartsch (65) is scheduled to run in Rostock, where he ended up in second place behind the SPD candidate in 2021 with 18.2 percent. Ramelow’s mission, in turn, is to win the Erfurt-Weimar constituency.

Above all, the candidacy of the current Prime Minister is a political issue. Because it is not yet clear when the state parliament will elect his successor. The CDU, BSW and SPD want to present a coalition agreement this week. But they do not have a clear majority in the state parliament.

And: As long as no new head of government is sworn in, Ramelow will remain in office for an indefinite period. If in doubt, he would have to run for the Bundestag parallel to his government job, which might be legally possible, but would hardly be feasible politically.

At least Ramelow has chances in the constituency. He is still popular. He won his Erfurt state constituency again confidently in the state elections in September, although his state party lost at the same time.

In addition, the Erfurt-Weimar federal constituency has always been considered narrow because all state parties concentrate their election campaigns there. Eastern representative Carsten Schneider will be running again for the SPD and Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt for the Greens. Given its positive national trend, the CDU also believes it has a good chance of winning.

The Prime Minister is likely to disrupt everyone else’s plans. This applies especially to the SPD. Thanks to the short-term momentum in favor of his party, Schneider won the constituency in 2021 with just 24.4 percent of the first votes – which represents an achievable hurdle for Ramelow.

The Social Democrats react accordingly nervously. “I hope that, even as a managing MP, the following applies to you: first the country, then the party,” wrote state party leader Georg Maier – who, as Interior Minister, is the Prime Minister’s deputy –.

The “Mission” Silberlocke, as the campaign will be known under this new slogan from Wednesday, is also the story of an extraordinary reconciliation: that of Dietmar Bartsch and Gregor Gysi. Both have known each other for ages and worked closely together in the PDS, Bartsch as federal treasurer, Gysi as chairman. A friendship developed from this.

In 2010, Gysi, now parliamentary group leader of the Left, stood against Bartsch, who was then the party’s federal manager. The reason: The then party leader Oskar Lafontaine suspected Bartsch of having leaked his cancer to the media. Lafontaine gave Gysi a choice: Bartsch or me. He then publicly dismantled his friend at the political start of the year, and Bartsch had to withdraw.

Reconciliation followed five years later when Gysi campaigned for Bartsch as his successor at the head of the faction. Now, together with Ramelow, they have become the last hope for the left.

The calculation is that the three have a reputation and reputation that could bring left-wing supporters who have left the party back to the party. Recently, other prominent left-wing politicians such as Bundestag Vice President Petra Pau announced that they no longer wanted to run for the federal election. In addition to the classic core topics such as affordable rents, minimum wage and basic child support, the old candidates each want to distinguish themselves with their own topic.

Gysi has already found his motto for the election campaign. On Monday, the 76-year-old posted on Instagram: “There are people you can never get rid of. For example me.”