Within just one year, the left loses around ten percent of party members. Now another throws in: Justin König, Brandenburg’s deputy party leader, is protesting against Sahra Wagenknecht’s policy. But King also has other reasons.
The deputy Brandenburg state chairman of the Left, Justin König, wants to leave the party in protest against Sahra Wagenknecht’s policies. König justified his decision to the “Spiegel” with the rally organized by Wagenknecht and the women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer in Berlin last weekend on the Ukraine war – representatives of the right-wing spectrum also took part.
“After tough weeks of inner struggle, my decision is made after the impressions of the ‘uprising for peace’,” said König, referring to the official title of the demo event, which, among other things, called for an end to support for Ukraine, which had been invaded by Russia became. The criticism of the former parliamentary group leader Wagenknecht is becoming increasingly quiet in his party, he complained.
As further reasons for his resignation, König named the “historical revisionism” that prevails in the left, the legacy of the former GDR governing party SED, the “negation of a young left-liberal East perspective” and the threatening loss of membership at the base. The Left Party lost ten percent of its members last year, shrinking from around 61,000 members to around 54,000.
According to König, he wants to leave the party on March 9th and thus also give up his management position and his membership in the federal committee. Wagenknecht is at odds with her party on many political issues. She is flirting with founding her own party.
The rally organized by Wagenknecht to mark the anniversary of the Ukraine war caused controversy on the left. The party leadership criticized the call because it lacked a sufficient distancing from Russia and a dissociation from right-wing forces. Among other things, Wagenknecht and Schwarzer are calling for a stop to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
A few days ago, the left-wing politician triggered a controversy with her statements about the rape of Ukrainian women by Russian soldiers. These are “scary and horrible” but simply “part of the war,” she said on the ARD program “Hart aber fair”. She also claimed that Ukrainian soldiers also raped women.
