Sahra Wagenknecht will not be a speaker at the Left Party’s Monday demonstration on September 5 in Leipzig. According to WELT information, the member of the Bundestag is said to have been invited first and then unloaded again. When asked by WELT, Wagenknecht did not want to comment on this.
The Leipzig Left Party member of the Bundestag Sören Pellmann, who is said to have been involved in the invitation and uninvitation, also did not answer a question about the process.
The preparation team of the Left Party in Leipzig said on Monday that there had been various considerations regarding the list of speakers. The longtime former leader of the Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Gregor Gysi, finally agreed.
They did not want to confirm or deny whether Wagenknecht was loaded and unloaded. The Linke party headquarters in Berlin distanced itself from having anything to do with the process: “We cannot confirm this. The event will be organized in Leipzig and with the support of the parliamentary group.”
At the end of last week, an SMS from Wagenknecht circulated in a Linke distribution list, which leaves a different impression. The reason for her message via mobile phone were statements by Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left), who had criticized Wagenknecht and left-wing politician Klaus Ernst for their attitude to the Ukraine war and placed them in a row with the far-right AfD politician Björn Höcke, how the editorial network Germany reported.
“It’s the second time that Ramelow has referred to Klaus and me as Putin propagandists and in the same breath as Höcke,” Wagenknecht wrote in her SMS, according to WELT information. If no one objects, Ramelow will continue to do so. “My invitation for September 5 fits in with this. in Leipzig under pressure from the KL House (the Karl Liebknecht House is the federal party headquarters, ed.). Of course you can accept all this without objection. You shouldn’t complain if at least I don’t want to have anything to do with this shop anymore,” Wagenknecht said in her SMS.
A clear connection to the ban on speaking at the planned Monday demonstration in Leipzig is also seen in Wagenknecht’s environment: “The unloading is apparently related to Sahra’s demands for an end to the sanctions against Russia and an opening of Nord Stream 2,” was heard from Wagenknecht’s environment on Monday .
There are different views on this in the party; Wagenknecht’s attitude does not violate the party’s guidelines, it said. “Apparently an attempt is made to prevent different views at a demo. Perhaps it is also about Wagenknecht as a person. We have had the feeling for a long time that everything is being done to force her out of the party. There seems to be a real defamation campaign going on,” it said.
So far, internally, it has been considered unlikely that Wagenknecht could leave the left.
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