After years of electoral setbacks and factional feuding, the downward spiral of Germany’s socialist party, Die Linke, may finally be coming to a close — or, at least, entering a new phase.

In June, cochairs Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan announced that Die Linke would have “a future without Sahra Wagenknecht” — thus shutting the door to the party’s best-known but also most controversial figure. Once Die Linke’s parliamentary cospeaker, but now rarely present in the Bundestag, her detractors have long accused her of defying party discipline to promote her own political agenda, with her attacks on what she calls the middle-class “lifestyle left” increasingly dominating her public interventions.

Since the cochairs’ announcement, it has been clear that the party such as it has existed since the mid-2000s is not long for this world. Wagenknecht’s supporters have for months openly speculated about leaving Die Linke, but with the party leadership’s unanimous decision, along with the announcement of human-rights activist Carola Rackete and doctor and social worker Gerhard Trabert as its top candidates for the European Union (EU) elections, a long-brewing split now seems imminent.