Before the party congress of the left, things are seething in the party. According to a “Spiegel” report, a group led by Sahra Wagenknecht has submitted an amendment to the main application for dealing with Russia. No longer to be found in it: the declaration of solidarity with Ukraine.
Because of the war of aggression in Ukraine, the left wants to correct its longstanding pro-Russian course at the party conference in Erfurt at the end of June. The party leadership is also to be re-elected at the party congress. But before the meeting, a dispute in the party is already emerging. According to a “Spiegel” report, a group of delegates led by MP and former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht want to correct the party’s main proposal. The passage in which solidarity with Ukraine is expressed and the Russian war of aggression is condemned should therefore be completely deleted.
The Wagenknecht camp wants to remove the statement of solidarity with Ukraine from the application. The following passage should disappear completely: “We strongly condemn Russia’s criminal war of aggression. Our solidarity goes to the people in Ukraine who are suffering, who have to resist or who have to flee. Our solidarity also belongs to the people in Russia who oppose the war, desert and fear persecution for doing so; the people who oppose war worldwide and support the people on the run.”
In a supplementary text, the group points out that Russia’s attack violates international law, but they are not prepared to “detach the war from its geopolitical and historical context”. The amendment has been submitted to the “Spiegel” and should appear on the party’s website on Thursday. It also mentions that Western politics has a responsibility for the war. “Years of demonstrative disregard for the security interests articulated by the Russian side led to this unjustifiable war,” it says.
The approximately 50 people, which include Wagenknecht and their supporters Sevim Dağdelen and Andrej Hunko, also want to delete other sentences related to Russia. Should be deleted: “For years, Russia has been pursuing a policy aimed at keeping the post-Soviet states under Russia’s influence: by trying to set up authoritarian vassal regimes or – where this does not succeed – to destabilize the states.” Next references to an “imperialist policy” by Russia, legitimized with an “autocratic great power ideology”, should also be deleted. Instead, the amended passages focus on other “illegal wars waged by the United States and its allies,” including in Iraq and Afghanistan. What is striking is that the amendment lacks the motion by Saxon MP Sören Pellmann, who belongs to the Wagenknecht camp but recently distanced himself from the group’s foreign policy.
