Pogorelskaya Svetlana Vadimovna – Ph.D. in political sciences, senior researcher, Department of philosophy, INION RAS
The paper attempts to explore the situation on the left flank of German political landscape. The main research method is comparative analysis. The Left Party occupies its permanent electoral niche in the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, it is too heterogeneous programmatically and too content-wisely divided in terms of content in order to become a serious alternative to right-wing populism, which is gaining strength. The disunity of the Left Party is a consequence of the formal unification (2007) of the East German Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and the West German left-wing social democratic and trade union forces, i.e. two fundamentally different cultures of leftist politics. Serious damage to the image of the Left Party was caused by the migration crisis (2014–2015). During this crisis the party had refused to instrumentalize in its favor the protest mood of the electorate, and its representatives had spoken in terms of anti-capitalist internationalism. As a result, in the process of elections to the Bundestag in 2017, the party has lost a significant number of its permanent voters (especially in the eastern lands), who cast their votes for the right-wing populist party «Alternative for Germany» (founded in 2013). «Aufstehen» («Climb Up!») movement, founded by S. Wagenknecht, leader of the Left Party left wing, «nationalizes» so called left theme. The movement primarily focuses on the field of social policy, as well as on the relationship between labor and capital. «Aufstehen» has a real chance to resist to growing popularity of the «Alternative for Germany». But for political success, any movement needs to become a party. Will S. Wagenknecht split the Left party? Will the Left party lose its position? So far, as the results of the February 2019 congress show, the party is dominated by the «realists», who are headed for a future coalition with the SPD. In the conclusion the author tries to answer these questions and characterize the prospects of the Left Party in Germany.
Germany, political parties, the Left Party, Wagenknecht, «Aufstehen» movement.
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