More than three months after the formation of the coalition with the SPD and the Greens, the Left Party is still trying to deal with the referendum to “expropriate German housing and co”. The nearly 170 delegates at the state party conference passed an emergency motion on Saturday, which explained that the participation of the left “among other things” depends on the implementation of the referendum.
There are different views as to the consistency with which the plan to socialize the housing stocks of large companies will be implemented and whether the party will leave the coalition if the efforts fail. “We will then have to assess whether the coalition is still tenable for us,” said party leader Katina Schubert in her opening speech, which was transmitted to the party conference hall via video link due to the corona.
The expert commission set up by the Senate last Tuesday to examine the possibilities of implementing the referendum described Schubert as an “important step” and spoke of a “historic opportunity to implement the article”. Demands such as transparent working methods and quarter parity of the commission have been met, explained the left state chairman and called on the SPD not to say goodbye to the project after the commission’s work was completed.
Representatives of the party camp, which is more radical on this point, such as Niklas Schenker and Ferat Kocak, members of the House of Representatives, made it clear that government participation without an expropriation law should not be an option.
An if-then condition that Schubert explicitly excluded when asked by the Tagesspiegel. Even though she mentioned leaving the coalition as at least an option in her speech, she explained that the results of the commission would have to be evaluated when they were available. In her speech, she also mentioned the possibility of a second referendum – then with a draft law.
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Bana Mahmood, a representative of the expropriation initiative demonstrating in front of the Hotel Estrel at the beginning of the party conference, criticized the Left Party’s behavior severely. In the election campaign, the left closely followed the successful campaign of the initiative, but in alliance with the SPD and the Greens, they refrained from fighting resolutely for the implementation of the referendum. Mahmood spoke of a “super meltdown” with reference to the current situation and accused the party leadership of not having kept agreements.
Expropriation initiative sees itself “deceived”
“We feel deceived by the left,” said Mahmood and appealed to the party not to sacrifice the “historic opportunity of expropriation” to the peace of the coalition. If that doesn’t happen, the impression arises “that the support for the referendum was just hot air for the election campaign,” explained Mahmood in her speech, which was applauded in particular by the Neukölln and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district associations. In the ranks of the party leadership, however, there was an icy silence.
In addition, Schubert and Senate members Katja Kipping, Lena Kreck and Klaus Lederer used their party speeches to appeal for unity within the party – and to clearly criticize Russia. “We will only be able to stop the downward trend if we stand together, clarify what separates us and emphasize what unites us,” warned Schubert. “There are enough tasks out there for us to let ourselves be divided,” said Lederer.
He added to the applause of the delegates: “I didn’t help build the party for 30 years to watch it destroy itself now.” Kipping thanked the countless volunteers who worked in the first days after the outbreak of the Ukraine war organized the arrival of refugees and warned that the major task of integrating them was still to come. There is “nothing, absolutely nothing, to put into perspective” about Russia’s war guilt, Kipping said.
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Schubert had previously stated: “We had to recognize that Russia is an imperialist power that consciously uses war as a means. Russia is a dictatorship, it is a capitalist system in which oligarchs and monopolies dictate politics and prices.” Other voices clearly remained in the minority on Saturday.
In its leading motion, which was passed with a clear majority, the left calls for, among other things, the assumption of energy debts by households with low incomes. Those who receive transfer payments should receive compensation payments for sharply rising energy costs. In addition, the left wants to municipalize companies such as Gasag or the S-Bahn Berlin.
