Nine months after being elected state chairwoman of the Left Party in Rhineland-Palatinate, Melanie Wery-Sims has declared her withdrawal from the party. "Meanwhile, I no longer stand behind a large part of our program," explained the 38-year-old. In addition, the left is “far too much about inner-party trench warfare”.
Wery-Sims mentioned the internal party discussions about sexism and sexualized assaults in its own ranks, the party's attitude towards Russia and her candidacy for federal treasurer of the left at the party conference in June, which she says was thwarted by party leader Janine Wissler.
With the knowledge "from the innermost" of the left, they can not cope. A simple resignation from the state presidency was therefore not an option. She wants to remain politically active - "but I can achieve so much more as an activist than within the party".
In her statement, Wissler was sharply criticized: The higher she rose in the party, "the uglier the arguments and hostilities became - at the same time I had to realize how little courage and backbone some people in the top posts have," writes Wery-Sims.
How the Left treats them
She describes her failed candidacy as federal treasurer as follows: “When I ran for the office of federal treasurer, the chairwoman told me in no uncertain terms that she didn’t see me there. Because I would have to move to Berlin with my children, which would certainly not be an option,” writes Wery-Sims. "In addition, I could not be paid for the office, since everyone now has to cut back financially (from the mouth of a member of the Bundestag, that's actually real satire)."
Wissler explained to the "Spiegel": "I reject the way I am reproduced in the reason for leaving. Melanie Wery-Sims asked me for a phone call before the federal party conference about her candidacy for federal treasurer. In the phone call I told her that I support the other candidate, Harald Wolf. For me it was always important to be honest in the feedback on candidatures in the party. I was in this case too.”
Melanie Wery-Sims from the Bernkastel-Wittlich district was elected chairwoman at a state party conference at the end of October last year, together with Stefan Glander from Kaiserslautern. In the federal election, the Rhineland-Palatinate left had fallen back to its worst state result of 3.3 percent. As early as March 2021, she again missed entering the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament with 2.5 percent, at that time with Wery-Sims as the top candidate.
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