The Left (Germany)
The Left (German: Die Linke), also commonly referred to as the Left Party (German: Linkspartei), is a political party in Germany, which describes itself as democratic socialist. The party was founded in 2007 as the merger of the post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the Socialist Unity Party that ruled East Germany until 1989, and the Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG), a left-wing breakaway from the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
The party is the most left-wing party of the five represented in the Bundestag, and has been labelled far-left by German government authorities and different international media. It is partly under observation by federal and some states' Verfassungsschutz authorities on account of suspected extremist tendencies. Its co-chairs are Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger. In the Bundestag the party has 76 out of 622 seats after polling 11.9% of the vote in the 2009 federal elections. Its parliamentary group is the fourth largest among the five groups in the German Bundestag. Internationally, The Left is a member of the Party of the European Left and is the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left grouping in the European Parliament.
According to official party figures, the Left Party had 69,458 registered members as of December 2011, making it the fourth-largest party in Germany. The majority of members are aged over 60.
Read more about The Left (Germany): Ideology, Controversies, Internal Caucuses
Famous quotes containing the word left:
“The appeal of the New Right is simply that it seems to promise that nothing will change in the domestic realm. People are terrified of change there, because it’s the last humanizing force left in society, and they think, correctly, that it must be retained.”
—Gerda Lerner (b. 1920)