Several people are leaving the Left Party because of Wagenknecht's extremely controversial speech in the Bundestag. They don't want to be involved with accusations that the government is starting an economic war with Russia. Criticism comes from other left-wing politicians. But Wagenknecht holds against it.
Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht has defended her controversial Bundestag speech on stopping sanctions against Russia against criticism from her own ranks. "I have rarely received so much approval from the population after a speech as in this case," said the former parliamentary group leader. She received hundreds of emails and the speech was viewed millions of times. Group leader Dietmar Bartsch warned of "attempts to split".
In last week's speech, Wagenknecht accused the federal government of "starting an unprecedented economic war against Russia." She called for an end to sanctions and continued imports of cheap raw materials and energy from Russia.
The party leadership and several left-wing politicians kept their distance. Ulrich Schneider, general manager of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, resigned from the party because of the speech. Financial expert Fabio De Masi also announced his departure. "The resignation of Schneider and others hurts a lot and shows that the disregard of democratic decisions when appearing on behalf of the parliamentary group by individual members of parliament is massively damaging to our party," said Left Party leader Martin Schirdewan to the newspapers of the Funke media group. "It's the task of the parliamentary group leadership to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again."
Wagenknecht rejected the numerous criticisms: "Anyone who has a problem attacking the government sharply and accusing it of its catastrophic policies, which threaten millions of people with poverty and social decline, has not understood what the task of a left-wing opposition party is."
Critics accuse Wagenknecht of not representing the majority opinion of the party. There have already been conflicts in the past over their attitude towards migration and the corona vaccination. At issue now are party congress resolutions emphasizing solidarity with Ukraine after the Russian attack and approving certain sanctions against Russia.
An open letter from three East German left-wing politicians entitled "Enough is enough" calls for Wagenknecht to be expelled from the parliamentary group and for the leader of the parliamentary group to resign. Wagenknecht played into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin and "wasted speaking time on right-wing populist platitudes". Other left-wing politicians, in turn, have started a petition for Wagenknecht's position, which has a good 6,000 supporters this Wednesday.
Group leader Bartsch insisted on party unity. "I will fight any attempts at division with all determination," he told the "Rheinische Post" and the "Bonner Generalanzeiger". He will do everything to ensure that the left "perceives its social task as the social opposition, especially in view of the chaotic politics of the traffic light government".
