A Successful Model? Die Linke (the Left Party — Germany)

Abstract

Die Linke is the direct successor to the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) of the former German Democratic Republic. It has undergone a significant political transformation, firstly as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), embracing the democratic red, green, feminist and pacifist politics typical of the new European left in the 1990s. Under the leadership of Gregor Gysi and Lothar Bisky it established itself as a significant political force in the eastern states of Germany, often in coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in regional government. In 2005, the PDS joined with WASG, a left split from the SPD under the leadership of Oskar Lafontaine, to form an electoral alliance to contest that year’s general election. The alliance won 8.7% of the vote and 54 seats in the Bundestag, emerging as the fourth largest party in Germany, with electoral support across east and west. In 2007, the WASG and the PDS joined together to form Die Linke. In the federal elections of September 2009 it made a significant advance on its previous performance, increasing its number of seats in the Bundestag from 54 to 76, and its share of the vote by 3.2% to 11.9%, and consolidated its position as a party of the whole of Germany.