What do you think about the Left Party "Die Linke" in Germany?

[Mortimer]

I think they are not really that liberal and they are not capitalist, they are different, then modern liberal/left/cultural marxists in the west, they are more old school, like it was in the eastern bloc, but they are economically less capitalist as most neo-liberals are capitalist as fuck. they are also anti-imperialist, which parties such as democrats and biden are not.

DIE LINKE

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[Bernhard]

I think they are not really that liberal and they are not capitalist, they are different, then modern liberal/left/cultural marxists in the west, they are more old school, like it was in the eastern bloc, but they are economically less capitalist as most neo-liberals are capitalist as fuck. they are also anti-imperialist, which parties such as democrats and biden are not.

DIE LINKE

DIE LINKE. 241,578 次赞 · 1,892 人在谈论. Kämpft für soziale Sicherheit, Frieden und Klimagerechtigkeit.

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The political coordinates are somewhat different in Germany than in the US, so are the labels. For example, "liberal" is often used synonymously to "left" in America, while in Germany (as in most of Europe, as far as I know), it's a distinct political tradition more alike to what Americans might call "moderate libertarians" -- small state, tax cuts, free economy (and moderate to liberal on social questions).

As for Die Linke? They are rather left on economic questions, for example they want higher taxes for top earners, a higher minimum wage and better employee protection. Unlike the moderate center-left SPD, they are not shy of using the word "socialism" to describe their goals. In these regards, the Linke goes somewhat further with their demands than the Social Democrats (SPD), who are more reluctant.

The Linke is also in favor of supporting green energies and an ecological transformation of the economy in favor of climate protection, though the average Linke supporter is probably less passionate about it than Green Party supporters.

The other two left-leaning parties, SPD and Greens, are reluctant to form a coalition with the Linke, though, mostly because of the Linke's foreign policy ideas: While SPD and Greens clearly support NATO, transatlantic cooperation with the US and German support for peace keeping missions, the Linke has a strong pacifist wing, demands disbanding NATO on the long run and forming a security organisation including Russia. Some Linke politicians also support authoritarian dictators who are seen as "left wing", such as Maduro in Venezuela or the Cuban regime, which is a no-go for the moderate left parties.

Some voters, especially in West Germany, are still very much opposed to the Linke because of its past: In 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, the communist state party responsible for the East German dictatorship SED, went into a reform process and put "the German Gorbachevs" in power of the party, which was renamed into Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). That party was moderately successful in East Germany on state level during the 90s and early 00s, but never got much support in the West. Only when in 2004, a number of center-left SPD members split off from their party over disagreement with Chancellor Schröder's social reforms, and finally united with the PDS to form Die Linke, that party scored some success in the West, too.

So although a majority of today's Linke members joined the party after 1990, there are still some old commies left in the Linke, and technically, it's the successor of the authoritarian communist former East German state party. For a while, some groups within the Linke even were under surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz (a kind of German NSA).

Lately, the Linke is polled between 6-8% of the votes on national level (their best result ever was 11.9% in the 2009 federal election) and the party made some headlines with in-fights: One of their most popular politicians, Sarah Wagenknecht, wrote a book harshly attacking "identity politics" and a kind of leftism that cares more about gender and race issues, than about wealth redistribution. By doing so, Wagenknecht kind of represented the stance of older, mostly eastern Linke members ... while a new generation of mostly western, younger Linke members care a lot about anti-racism and feminism. The clash between these two camps apparently kind of divides the Linke these days.

 

[Bernhard]

As for my personal opinion?

I like their ideas on minimum wage and taxes, but I think they're total nuts on foreign policy, which is why I will not vote for them. "Pacifists" licking the asses of disgusting tyrants abroad, such as Russia's Putin, are the retarded little brothers of the Nazis and other facists.