Germany’s Left Party officially dissolved its parliamentary faction on Wednesday, after one of the party’s former icons, Sahra Wagenknecht, broke away to form a populist rival party.
“This is certainly a historic turning point and of course it is also a bitter defeat,” said Dietmar Bartsch, a Left Party parliamentarian who had served as co-chair of the faction.
Members of the Left Party will remain in the German parliament, or Bundestag, but will no longer be part of an official faction, or caucus. The disbanding means the party loses financial support and is forced to liquidate assets and fire staff. The parliamentary rights of its members will also be limited.
The dissolution of the Left Party faction comes after Wagenknecht, the longtime face of the party, resigned in October to form a new anti-establishment party, bringing along nine parliamentarians from the Left Party with her.
Wagenknecht is among Germany’s most popular politicians and has drifted to the right on several social issues, including on migration, creating ideological crossover with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Wagenknecht says her new party will represent voters that are deeply frustrated with mainstream politics.
Wagenknecht has also railed against Germany’s military support for Ukraine, and called for the restoration of closer relations with Moscow, leading to accusations from her political opponents that she’s a “Putin sympathizer” — a charge Wagenknecht denies. Her views on Russia had created deep rifts within the Left Party, which traces some of its roots to East Germany’s Communist Party.
A minimum of 37 parliamentarians are required for a party to be able to form a faction in the Bundestag. The Left Party now only has 28 parliamentary members.
Bartsch said he aims to restore the Left Party faction with a successful performance in Germany’s next federal election in 2025. But the party is only at 3 percent in the latest polls, well below the threshold needed to make it into parliament. The party’s prospects for political survival, therefore, remain highly uncertain.
In a sign of that uncertainty, the Bundestag’s former website on the Left Party now says “404 — page not found.”
