German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party has signalled a willingness to partner with the far-left Die Linke despite previously vowing never to work with the descendant party of the communist government of East Germany.
Given the tenuous majority in the Bundestag for the governing coalition of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), which resulted in a historic defeat in the first chancellor vote for Merz on Tuesday, party bosses have acknowledged that they will likely need to cooperate with Die Linke (The Left).
To avoid a potentially catastrophic delay for the installation of the new government, the CDU was forced to essentially beg Die Linke representatives to back a parliamentary measure allowing for a second vote on Tuesday, which saw Merz belatedly installed as chancellor with the aid of the direct descendant of the Marxist–Leninist ruling party of former East Germany, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
On Wednesday, Merz’s chief of staff Thorsten Frei said that the CDU is open to revoking a 2018 party resolution ruling out any cooperation with Die Linke to pass legislation that requires a two-thirds vote in the parliament.
“We will have to talk about it together… but we are certainly in a situation where we have to reassess one question or another,” Frei told broadcaster NTV.
These contortions are only necessary because the CDU refuses to work with the right-sovereigntist Alternative for Germany (AfD), the second largest party in the Bundestag. Had the two parties partnered rather than the centre-right CDU with the centre-left SPD, they would have had a commanding majority and no difficulties in passing laws. Yet this was seen as unacceptable, and reaching out to actual Communists a more palatable outcome.
Die Linke leader Ines Schwerdtner said that while Merz is a “class enemy” having worked for Blackrock, the party was open to further negotiations about partnering with the CDU.
Nevertheless, this would represent a major reversal from the CDU. In 2018, the allegedly conservative party said of its refusal to work with Die Linke over its previous incarnation: “The SED was responsible for the totalitarian dictatorship in the GDR, with its oppression, planned economy, and the shoot-to-kill order at the Berlin Wall. Political opponents and dissidents were not only spied on and persecuted in the GDR, but also murdered.
“Given these fates, how can we demand that the CDU cooperate with the SED successor party, which has failed to truly distance itself from these injustices?”
However, the government may need the help of the far-left party to pass crucial votes, including legislation to remove the ‘debt brake’ spending limits within the German constitution, which itself represented a major reversal from Merz, who campaigned on fiscal responsibility.
The lifting of the debt brake will be used to pave the way for a trillion euro spending package on defence, infrastructure and green agenda initiatives.
Opposition AfD leader Alice Weidel remarked: “Because it’s already clear that governing with the small coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD is almost impossible, the CDU now wants to strike a deal with the Left Party. This is the next major betrayal not only of the voters, but of our country.”
While the centre-right appears willing to work with the Die Linke, in addition to the left-wing Social Democrats, Merz has vowed to uphold the so-called “cordon sanitaire” firewall against the AfD, which Germany’s state political spy agency classified as a “right-wing extremist” party last week.
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