Left chairwoman in Rhineland-Palatinate leaves party and settles accounts with Wissler

Nine months after being elected state chairwoman of the Left Party in Rhineland-Palatinate, Melanie Wery-Sims has declared her withdrawal from the party.

Left chairwoman in Rhineland-Palatinate leaves party and settles accounts with Wissler

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

The politician from the Bernkastel-Wittlich district was elected chair 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.