Germany's Social Democrats Consider Left Party Deal

[reorg]

Source: DW-World.de - Deutsche Welle

Political Parties | 05.03.2008

The leader of the Social Democrats in the state of Hesse signaled a significant shift in German politics by saying she would hold talks with the Left Party. But her main opponents want her to consider a grand coalition.

Six weeks after inconclusive elections in the western state, Hesse's Social Democratic Part (SPD) leader, Andrea Ypsilanti, said her preferred combination of the SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP had foundered on opposition from the FDP.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), however, said it wanted to engage in talks with Ypsilanti over a grand coalition, similar to the national power-sharing agreement, according to CDU state parliamentary leader Christean Wagner.

He told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday, March 5, a grand coalition would be the only way to keep the Left Party from increasing its influence.

Ypsilanti, who positions herself on the left wing of the SPD, indicated on Tuesday, she would accept being voted into office as premier with the help of the six Left Party members of the new legislature.

...

Read more: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3167706,00.html

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Another article in Spiegel Online International, with quotes from other newspapers:

'Shaky Ground' for Germany's Social Democrats

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD)have ended weeks of soul searching and prevarication by opting to form a minority government in the western German state of Hesse. But the party's decision to go back on its word and rely on Left Party votes to do so already looks like it is turning off voters.

Hesse SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti will now try to form a coalition with the Green Party by relying on support from the Left Party. By doing so, she is going back on her pledge made before the election to not cooperate with the left-wing party. However, the election created a stalemate situation in Hesse with neither the SPD nor the conservative Christian Democrats having either a majority or the ability to build a coalition government with their preferred political partners.

Then, two weeks ago, SPD party boss Kurt Beck hinted he was relaxing his opposition to working with the Left Party at the state and regional level in (more...) in western Germany, opening up a dangerous rift with more conservative elements within his own party. Finally, on Tuesday, Yspilanti went back on her initial promise, saying she would try to form a minority government by relying on votes from the Left Party (more...).

The Left Party, which was formed by the merger of the PDS, the successor to the ruling Communist SED party of the former East Germany, and WAGS, a group of disaffected former SPD members and other far-leftists in western Germany, has been able to capitalize on the anger caused by sweeping welfare cuts introduced under the previous SPD-Green coalition in the federal government led by ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Already in a strong position in eastern Germany, it has now successfully entered western German state parliaments. ...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,539561,00.html

The SPD can do whatever they want, for now the Left Party will be strengthened either way.

[Hardrada]

1. I should follow current German politics more closely since I am

concerned about changes in social welfare programs. We are going back to Berlin this summer and it is always interesting to know the current political situation.

[David__77]

2. Only the Left Party is consistently progressive.

II believe most DUers would support it, were they German.

[New Dawn]

12. Agreed, I'd vote for The Left if I were a German citizen.

[DFW]

3. The Left Party

One of their leaders here (I am stationed in Germany, have been for
decades, and am married to a Green-voting German), Gregor Gysi, said
that their party was not homogeneous. He's correct (somewhat), but the
party also unapologetically embraces former SED members, many of whom
enthusiastically supported the shootings of unarmed civilians trying to
flee over the Berlin Wall. For that matter, they supported the Berlin
Wall, too. The SPD had formerly said they would not enter any coalition
with these people. Power-hungry and frustrated that they can't win enough
elections on their own, they are now reconsidering this policy.

As people with friends in the East who spent time behind bars for the
felony crime of "Republikflucht (fleeing the Republic)," we will never
support this party or any coalition involving them. The Left Party will
be strengthened by bad economic times and diluted by good economic times.
In bad times, unemployment soars here, and confiscatory policies seem good
to those out of work, never mind that back in the old East Germany, the
party bosses lived like royalty while the population was relegated to
little above subsistence level with political and travel freedom just
about non-existent. In good times, they fade. The grass is always redder,
in a manner of speaking.

[reorg]

6. Could you give an example

of a former SED member now "unapologetically embraced" by the Left Party who "enthusiastically" supported the shootings of unarmed civilians? Or is this what they teach you in propaganda class? Thanks.

[DFW]

7. Bitte sehr

Wir brauchen die Stasi!
Ich glaube die PDS/Linke ist immer noch in der DDR stecken geblieben. Über die Politische Motivation kann man sich streiten, dafür ist ja Wahlkampf da. Aber was eine Linke Abgeordnete von sich gegeben hat, schlägt dem Fass den Boden aus.

Eine Politikerin der Linksfraktion im niedersächsischen Landtag hat sich einem ARD-Bericht zufolge für die Wiedereinführung der Staatssicherheit ausgesprochen. Bei einer anderen Gesellschaftsform brauche man ein derartiges Organ, um sich vor "reaktionären Kräften" zu schützen, zitierte das Magazin "Panorama" die DKP-Politikerin Christel Wegner.

...

Dem Bericht zufolge rechtfertigte Wegner auch den Bau der Mauer an der deutsch-deutschen Grenze 1961. "Der Bau der Mauer war in jedem Fall eine Maßnahme, um zu verhindern, dass weiterhin Westdeutsche in die DDR konnten", wurde die Angeordnete zitiert. Sie hätten die Wirtschaft geschädigt, weil sie billig eingekauft hätten.

Of course, after there was a blow-up about it, she said she was "misunderstood."
Sort of like Walter Ulbricht was a "misunderstood" democrat.

I have been here for nearly 30 years, and on both sides of the wall (while it
existed). I got enough propaganda from both sides. You may take yours from one
side if that's what turns you on. Extremists of both ends make me run in the
opposite direction. Left or right, both end up enforcing their point of view
at the end of a gun if they gain power, always have. Nein, danke.

[reorg]

9. Okay, let's see

Your allegation was that there are:

- former SED members,
- now "unapologetically embraced" by the Left Party
- "enthusiastically" supported the shootings of unarmed civilians

Asked for a (one) example, we get a quote in German that nobody can understand, about

- a former DKP member (the tiny and insignificant communist party in the West, not in the GDR)
- who is still a member of this tiny and insignificant party and not a member of the Left Party
- was unapologetic about the Berlin Wall in an interview and tried to explain the reasons for it (e.g. prevention of economic damage by Westerners who crossed the open border to buy cheap goods in the East)

When members of the Left Party heard about this interview, they distanced themselves from this DKP member. The person had been allowed to be a candidate for the Left Party in a state election where the Left Party had not yet enough qualified members. Following this interview, she was expelled from the faction of the Left in the state parliament.

No enthusisiasm, no support for shooting civilians, no "whole-hearted" embracing - on the contrary, she never was a member, and all cooperation with her has stopped when she made some public remarks that seemed "unapologetic". Why are you lying?

[davidinalameda]

4. is the Left Party the left-overs of the GDR Communists?

[reorg]

5. No, it is a new party

The Left Party is NOT identical with the former PDS, the reformed "post-communist" party in the East.

And even the PDS was not exactly the left-overs of the ruling bureaucracy in the GDR. Rather the uncompromised, younger and still idealistic new blood -- it was clear that the post-communists would not be able to win majorities and join governments in the early nineties. However, despite the new competition from the SPD, the PDS gained respect in the East relatively quickly, when it became obvious that the Easterners had been lied to, and that there would be no "blooming landscapes" as had been promised ...

So the PDS grew, they have around 30 percent nowadays in some states, and are member of several coalitions on state level, including the city government in Berlin. When they tried to spread westward, however, they could never overcome the deep-seated ressentiments, 40 years of anti-communist propaganda have had an effect. No party to the left of the SPD could ever gain ground here after WWII, only in isolated local and city governments had leftists ever jumped the 5 percent hurdle. This didn't change with the success of the PDS in the East.

Only when a significant number of leftists split from the SPD in the late nineies, first and foremost the former SPD party leader Lafontaine, but also many union members who were outraged at the social cuts introduced by Schroeder, leftists became successful in elections. They had founded a group called WASG, which not only opposed the cuts in the social sytem, but was also decidedly anti-war. Like most other leftists, Lafontaine had already opposed the NATO bombings of Serbia when he still was in the SPD (while Schroeder and consorts participated). Shortly before the last federal elections (Bundestag), the WASG and the PDS united, and won some 8 percent of the overall vote, a never before seen success by a left party in Germany after the war.

After a number of state elections in the West it has become clear that this is a trend, it seems the united Left Party is here to stay.

The combined percentages of the Left Party, the SPD and the Greens -- to date all considered "left-of-center" -- constitute a majority in Germany. If these parties learn to get along with each other, they could form a government after the next federal elections.

[New Dawn]

13. It is a left coalition party.

Most members are not actually Marxists.

[DFW]

8. The SPD has already governed in a coalition with the Greens

Schröder had to have them as a coalition partner when he took over in 1998.
The country is very fractious at the moment, with all sorts of local interests
influencing things at the State level, and the national "grand coalition" very
shaky, even more so than it was at the onset. The recent revelation of mass tax
evasion by a number of super-rich Germans will help damage the "senior" partner
CDU, although they messed up heavily when they nominated the nasty far-right
premier of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, for Chancellor, instead of giving the
nomination to Merkel then. She might have won handily then, but Schröder squeaked
back in, aided by the stupidity of Bush and his Iraq fiasco. When Bush asked
Germany, an intensively pacifist country these days, to help with the invasion, it
was a no-brainer to oppose it, and Schröder wisely came out against it first and
loudest, while the mealy-mouthed (and intensely arrogant and dislikable) Stoiber
beat around the bush (pardon the pun). In Green Foreign Minister Fischer, Germany
actually had an interesting character representing the country for once, instead of
the dry bureaucrats who usually get the job.

[reorg]

10. The SPD has lost much credit with their voters

because of the SPD's direction under Schroeder, who consequently lost the last election. They

- unapologetically participated in an illegal war, providing most of the propaganda lies ("horseshoe plan", Scharping) and sent soldiers to Afghanistan in defiance of Germany's constitution, setting a most unfortunate precedent for the use of the German army
- drastically changed unemployment insurance law, to the detriment of many of their voting clientele

Sure, Germany did not send soldiers to Iraq like Britain under Tony Blair -- that would have meant Schroeder's immediate leave. But they allowed the occupying US Army to use all the infrastructure they have in Germany and which is needed for the war. All the anti-war rhetoric not withstanding, the SPD government was always trying to be cooperative, training police in occupied Iraq and whatnot.

That might change, hopefully, as soon as the Left Party is needed for a majority, and the other two "left-of-center" parties will depend on them. Chances are, however, that the Greens will rather turn to coalitions with the right-wingers, as they already plan to do in Hamburg.

[reorg]

11. First cooperation by SPD with Left Party on state level appears doomed

A corporate lawyer by profession, who is apparently moonlighting as backbencher of the SPD in the state parliament of Hesse as well as in her home town, has publicly declared that she is going to withhold her vote if the candidate of her own party, Ypsilanti, is willing to accept the votes of the Left Party. Even though the Left Party is not making ANY demands in return ...

Obviously, this person whose claim to fame is that she is married to the grandson of a former SPD governor but has never been heard of before outside of her constituency, prefers the extreme right-wing and xenophobic CDU government in Hesse.

I wonder how many transparent stunts like that will be needed until the Left Party will be the one that will have to accept the votes of a tiny SPD minority, LOL.