Are These the Last Days of Die Linke?
Die Linke was founded on the promise of unifying Germany’s left and rejuvenating what was once the world’s leading socialist movement. Fifteen years later, it’s struggling to survive.
You couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Susanne Hennig-Wellsow and Janine Wissler on Germany’s election night. The pair had only led Die Linke for a few months — hardly enough time to halt the party’s downward spiral, let alone reverse it. Nevertheless, as results began to roll in on September 26, 2021, the fresh-faced cochairs found themselves in front of the cameras, forced to explain why their party was teetering on the brink of annihilation.
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. Back in February 2021, Hennig-Wellsow and Wissler had been elected to lead Germany’s socialists to greener pastures. After nearly a decade of stagnation and dysfunction characterized by ongoing public feuds between leading party figures, Die Linke was hoping to begin anew. Instead, it’s now on life support, its 4.9 percent September performance just the latest sign that Die Linke’s survival as a national political force is anything but certain.
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
Since the election, an at times almost surreal spectacle has unfolded: practically everyone, from Die Linke’s aging cohort of East German pragmatists to the young activists who increasingly shape the party’s direction, has issued some kind of mea culpa acknowledging shared responsibility for the defeat and vowing to do better.
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