After the repeat election in Berlin, Christine Buchholz will not enter the Bundestag for the Left Party. She voluntarily gives up her mandate and justifies this step with conflicts within the party.
The left-wing politician Christine Buchholz does not accept the Bundestag mandate to which she was entitled as a result of the Berlin repeat election. Jörg Cezanne will take her place. Buchholz justified her resignation on Monday by saying that the Left was not doing justice to “its task as an anti-war party.” Accepting the mandate would bring them “into constant conflict with the line of the party leadership and the Left group in the Bundestag,” the daily newspaper “nd.DerTag” quoted a statement as saying.
For Buchholz, the left’s criticism of NATO, the German role in the Ukraine war and Israel’s actions in Gaza does not go far enough. At the same time, she emphasized that the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance was “not an alternative” for her.
Left leader: They are “the peace party” in Germany
Buchholz sat for the Left Party in the Bundestag from 2009 to 2021 and was a member of the Defense Committee. In 2021 she ran for third place on the Hessian Left state list, but narrowly missed out on a mandate. Since there were not enough votes for the previous left-wing MP Pascal Meiser due to the low voter turnout in the partial repeat of the federal election in Berlin, his mandate goes to the Hessian Left. Instead of Buchholz, Cezanne, who was next on the list at the time, is now moving up to the Bundestag.
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The Left’s federal chairman, Martin Schirdewan, said he took note of Buchholz’s decision with respect. At the same time, he emphasized that the Left was “the peace party” in Germany. Schirdewan praised the successor Cezanne as a “proven financial politician.” The 65-year-old was already from 2017 to 2021 a member of the Bundestag and sat on the finance committee for the Left.
