The former leader of the left, Katja Kipping, is calling on her party to revise its position on NATO. The program statement on the Atlantic Alliance was outdated, she told the editorial network Germany. “A state-of-the-art left-wing party has a future,” continued the Berlin Senator for Labor and Social Affairs. However, some programmatic decisions are needed.
As an opponent of NATO, the left has been calling for the dissolution of the defense alliance in its party program for years. Instead, she proposes a “collective security system” – of which Russia is also a member.
However, since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine in February 2022, opinions within the left have vacillated. The party struggles to find a common denominator. In particular, the position of Sahra Wagenknecht has been causing tension for months: the former faction leader has publicly spoken out in favor of an end to military aid to Ukraine. Together with women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer, she formulated the “Manifesto for Peace”, in which she called for an end to arms deliveries. Around 600,000 people signed the petition.
Linke-Politik Kipping told the editorial network Germany: “We don’t have to become Nato fans now, but we have to update what has been formulated so far”. The party should continue to stand up against “armament and militarization” in the future, but at the same time make it clear that it is on the side of those who are being attacked, i.e. Ukraine. It must be clear that the call for peace negotiations is not a covert “complicity with Putin”.
When asked whether, according to speculation, Wagenknecht would turn his back on the left and found his own party, Kipping said: “I don’t envy the two parliamentary group leaders Dietmar Bartsch and Amira Mohamed Ali. You now have to find a political solution to the fact that a faction member has already submitted the divorce papers with great PR and publicity and is publicly speculating about taking as much as possible with him when the property is separated.”
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