Germany’s far-left party Die Linke (The Left) is expected to see a leadership change in the autumn, according to reports of a party crisis session following a collapse in support in the European Parliament elections, DPA learned on Sunday.
Co-leaders Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler have made it clear that they do not intend to continue in the role. They have led the party together since 2022.
A working group has been appointed to chart the way forward for the party’s positions on content, strategy and leadership ahead of the annual congress in Halle, southwest of Berlin, in October.
The party has its origins through several changes to the communist party that governed East Germany until reunification in 1990 and gained most of its support in that region.
It won just 2.7% of the vote in the European elections in early June, around half the number five years earlier.
“The result of the European elections was a severe blow to Die Linke,” noted a resolution passed after the session. “In short, we have to recognize that our electoral strategy did not work,” he added.
The party performed poorly in the 2021 German federal parliamentary election and subsequent state-level elections.
The resolution noted that the party made social justice, climate change, peace and opposition to rearmament its central themes, while foreign policy and migration dominated the elections.
