Stefan Ziefle from the revolutionary socialist group Socialism From Below spoke to Yuri Prasad about the tests ahead for the left in Germany
A mass demonstration against the fascist AfD in Berlin last month in the run up to the German election (Picture: Guy Smallman)
SOCIALIST WORKER
Friday 07 March 2025
The revival of the German radical left party Die Linke was for many people the sole glimmer of hope in last month’s general election.
But the party now faces the new challenge of a coalition government led by the right wing CDU. It is determined to smash the welfare state to pay for increased arms spending. And the AfD fascist party is emboldened after surging to second place.
Stefan Ziefle is from the revolutionary socialist group Sozialismus von Unten (Socialism From Below),
“The conservative CDU and Labour-like SPD parties made a deal to massively increase spending on arms and infrastructure,” he said.
Under the German parliamentary system, the old MPs keep their seats for up to 30 days after the election.
“They will rush through changes to the law before the new parliament convenes. That means they will only need to add the MPs from the Green and the Liberal FDP party to give them the two-thirds majority that they need to make a change to the constitution.”
The new coalition government is expected to take over around Easter. Stefan says had the CDU and SPD waited until then, they would have been forced to rely on either the AfD or Die Linke to win the vote.
“The SPD is not stupid,” he adds. “The proposal with the CDU combines practically infinite spending on rearmament with a 500 billion euro infrastructure package.
“That’s something the SPD can sell to its voters as ‘something we all need’. The streets are in a bad state, the train system is crumbling because of decades of privatisation, and so on.”
The leadership of Die Linke may well have been tempted to back such a proposal, says Stefan.
“There are parts of the party, which have become stronger during the past few years, that want it to orientate on being part of governing coalitions.
The party had a formulation that said, ‘No to Nato.’ But the right insisted that it would get in the way of joining a future government
“They say the party must adjust its politics and start acting ‘responsibly’. And they attack the party’s programme, even though that itself was the product of a compromise between the left and the right.
“For example, the party had a formulation that said, ‘No to Nato.’ But the right insisted that to be part of any future government, Die Linke would have to accept German imperialism in some way or another, so that policy should go.”
Stefan says there is quite a contrast between this conservative wing and the tens of thousands of people who joined during the last year. This influx has taken Die Linke membership to over 100,000 people.
“The key element in the growth of Die Linke is the mass anti-fascist movement,” he says. He points out that in his home city of Hamburg some 180,000 people took to the streets against the AfD last year.
“That’s one in ten of the whole population,” said Stefan. “That is not only the biggest demonstration I have ever seen in Hamburg, but I think the biggest here since the 1918 Revolution.
“It was a very broad movement, including the churches, the SPD and the smaller radical left groups. But they were completely marginalised.”
Thousands of people were drawn towards Die Linke because of anti-racism, says Stefan.
“In previous elections we had a polarisation between the CDU and the SPD,” he explained. “But this time we had polarisation between the parties that are in favour of deporting migrants—and Die Linke, which opposed that.”
A new anti-fascist movement in Germany—interview with Christine Buchholz
Read More
But the party leadership had not planned to campaign on the issue. “They didn’t want to talk about racism and immigration,” says Stefan.
“They didn’t want any controversy. And so decided to concentrate on certain social issues, such as rent capping, and evade the tougher questions.”
Despite this, Die Linke was known as the only party that did not boast about how many people it would expel in the future. This meant anti-racists “automatically” saw it as a counterweight to the mainstream, says Stefan.
Anti-fascism remains the big challenge for the radical left—and the entrance of so many thousands of new people into action has fantastic potential.
“Aufstehen Gegen Rassismus, which is similar to Stand Up To Racism in Britain, will continue trying to bring together the broadest forces for action against the AfD,” says Stefan.
“That will hopefully include some leading figures in Die Linke, as well as many of its branches and thousands of its members—even if the party is itself not the motor of this.”
No comments:
Post a Comment