The new leadership of the Left Party in the Bundestag wants to make a special commitment to East Germany and demand concrete improvements to wages and pensions. "For us, the East is the heart of this party," said the new group chairman Sören Pellmann in Berlin on Tuesday. A strategy paper with perspectives for the East in 2030 is in preparation. Co-chair Heidi Reichinnek emphasized that the Left Party remains the "voice of the East", but is not purely an Eastern party.
Pellmann (47) comes from Saxony, Reichinnek (35) grew up in Saxony-Anhalt. Both were elected chairmen of the 28 Left Party MPs in the Bundestag on Monday after extremely close votes. This was a setback for party leaders Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler, who had campaigned for a consensus solution with broad majorities. MPs Ates Gürpinar and Clara Bünger, who are closer to the Executive Board, did not make the cut.
Reichinnek nevertheless said: "We are pulling in the same direction." The common goal is for the Left Party to return to the Bundestag as a parliamentary group in 2025. That is of course "a task for us". Pellmann said that he sees the group as united despite the close election results.
