No longer a faction: The Left must adapt to a new reality in the Bundestag. Not only are the distances longer and the speaking time shorter.
Seat in the last row, two minutes of speaking time – the new everyday life has begun for the Left in the Bundestag after the dissolution of their parliamentary group. Prominent MPs such as party leader Janine Wissler, the previous parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch and the veteran Gregor Gysi followed the government declaration by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the following debate from the back row in the plenary session.
While Bartsch was called as the fifth speaker at the end of November after Scholz’s government declaration on the budget situation, Gysi has now only been called in 13th place.
With a smile on his face
Given his current status, Gysi was announced as “non-attached” and had to walk an unusually long way to the lectern, which he did with a laugh on his face. The speaking time, which was only two minutes, was probably also unusual for him. Gysi used it to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and the protection of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
On the way to the lectern, Gysi passed a kind of construction site: where his group used to sit, on the far left of the lectern, the first two benches had been removed. They are the place of the faction leadership, which the left no longer has.
The Left MPs have their former colleague Sahra Wagenknecht to thank for this new situation, who resigned from the party along with nine other parliamentarians. This meant that the Left also lost its parliamentary group status because it now has too few MPs. It dissolved on December 6th.
The 28 MPs remaining on the Left and the new “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” now want to be recognized as a group in the Bundestag – that would give them more rights than the status of non-attached MPs provides. It’s also about financial support. The decision on this is made by the Council of Elders.
AfD calls for Petra Pau to resign
The fact that the Left is no longer a faction could also cost Petra Pau her position as Vice President of the Bundestag. The AfD, which has already tried in vain to get a vice-presidential position in the second electoral term, is calling on the left-wing politician to resign in a motion. From the point of view of the Union faction, Pau cannot be held. In an application, she demands that the Bundestag’s rules of procedure be changed so that membership in the Bundestag Presidium also ends with the loss of parliamentary group membership.
Pau has so far refused to resign. Bundestag President Bärbel Bas demonstratively stood behind her deputy. The SPD politician explained in mid-November that she enjoys “not only cross-party support, but also my very personal high esteem and recognition.”
