Germany: How three old men hope to save the Left Party

Germany's Left Party is struggling for survival. For many weeks, opinion polls have put them well below the 5% threshold for representation in parliament.

Now, three of the party's most senior and most popular politicians have decided to make sure their party is represented no matter how poor the overall performance.

On February 23, 2025, Germany is set to hold a snap election. Germans have two votes: one for a candidate in their constituency, the other for a party. This second vote determines the number of seats a party gets in the Bundestag. Any party that scores less than 5% fails to get representation.

However, an exception exists: If three party candidates win in their respective constituencies, the 5% threshold is waived.

2021 federal election: a blessing in disguise for the Left Party

This exception in electoral law came to the Left Party's aid in the 2021 federal election when it garnered only 4.9% of the vote.

However, because three Left Party candidates won their constituencies, the Left was allowed to fill 4.9% of the seats in parliament and send a total of 39 MPs.

The Left Party hopes to pull off this rare feat once again in 2025.

Three old white men to the rescue?

However, this is likely to be even more difficult this time around, as the party will likely lose many voters to the left-wing populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which split off from the Left Party in early 2024 and has since performed significantly better in regional elections and opinion polls.

Gregor Gysi, Bodo Ramelow and Dietmar Bartsch, all well past retirement age, may now be the best hope for a party that dates back to the communist German Democratic Republic, and is now more worried about its future than ever before.

They call their renewed candidacy for the Bundestag "Mission Silver Locks" — an ironic reference to their average age of 70.

Gysi: Left Party still the voice of eastern German voters

The most prominent among them is Gregor Gysi, who is turning 77 years old in January. He played a pivotal role in the successful transformation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in East Germany, helping it to become the Left Party as it is today.

Gysi, a former lawyer and eloquent orator, has been a member of the German Bundestag almost continuously since 1990, winning his Berlin constituency eight times by a wide margin. 

Gysi believes he and his party continue to be a much-needed voice in reunified Germany. "If arguments from the left are no longer heard in the Bundestag, debates will become a lot more limited," he said, adding that the Left Party was still the voice of eastern German voters more than any other party.

Bartsch has never won constituency

This view is also shared by Dietmar Bartsch, Gysi's decadeslong comrade and confidant. The 66-year-old comes from the northeastern region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the Left Party has been part of the state government since 2021 in coalition with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Bartsch has said there is only one left-wing party in the Bundestag: the Left Party. "All the others tend to jockey for the center," he said.

Bartsch, who holds a doctorate in economics, has been a member of the Bundestag since 1998 with only a brief interruption. He has also served as the parliamentary group leader and, as managing director of the Left Party, has organized numerous electoral campaigns.

Unlike Gysi, however, Bartsch has never won his constituency and got into parliament only via his party's state list. A victory in his constituency would, therefore, be a first.

Ramelow remains very popular

The third of the three most promising Left Party candidates is Bodo Ramelow, the head of government in the eastern state of Thuringia.

Ramelow, 68, recently lost in his state's election but remains very popular. If he wins his constituency for the Left Party in the Bundestag election, it would come as no surprise.

Ramelow was a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009. Now, together with Gysi and Bartsch, he wants to help his badly shaken party back into the Bundestag.

The Left Party's membership has an average age of 55, and only one-third of them are women. Critics have suggested that rather than banking on elderly candidates to lead the party into the future, it should embrace diversity and focus on the younger generation in the big cities. 

This article was originally written in German.

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