Federal election: Gysi, Bartsch and Ramelow start “Mission Silberlocke”

The long-time left-wing politicians Gregor Gysi, Dietmar Bartsch and Bodo Ramelow are applying for direct mandates in Berlin, Rostock and Erfurt in the federal elections in February in order to secure their party’s entry into parliament. The three politicians presented the “Mission Silberlocke” suggested by Gysi on Wednesday in Berlin.

“If the Left were to leave the Bundestag, it would mean that there would no longer be any left-wing arguments in the Bundestag,” said Gysi. Given a shift to the right in Germany, that would be “quite a catastrophe”. That’s why he and his colleagues decided to run for office despite their age.

The former parliamentary group leader Gysi is 76 years old, Ramelow, incumbent Prime Minister in Thuringia, is 68, and Bartsch, also a former parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, is 66. Gysi and Bartsch had long left it open whether they would run for the Bundestag again, Ramelow has only just done so re-elected to the Thuringian state parliament. The fact that they are now seeking mandates in the Bundestag is due to the existential crisis of their party after the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance split off.

Left in surveys below the five percent hurdle

In surveys nationwide, the Left is only at three to four percent. If she were to win three direct mandates in the federal election, she would come back into the Bundestag with parliamentary strength, as she did in 2021, via the so-called basic mandate clause. Gysi in particular is expected to have good chances in his constituency in Berlin-Köpenick and Ramelow in Erfurt.

The new federal chairwoman of the Left, Ines Schwerdtner, had announced a double strategy for the election: the goal was both direct mandates and the five percent of the second votes. The “silver curls” are important. Its co-chair Jan van Aken even said this week: “We will definitely win three, if not four direct mandates, and Mission Silberlocke will probably contribute two.” It is “a guarantee that we will be represented in the next Bundestag.”