The Left Party will push for an investigative committee in the German parliament after the federal election to scrutinize Germany’s long-standing energy dependence on Russia.
“In the next legislative period, the Left Party in the Bundestag will ensure the establishment of an investigative committee on the exploding energy prices” said the Left Party’s chairman, Jan van Aken, to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Monday edition). “These dependencies and personal entanglements of politicians and energy giants must be clarified” he added.
One needs to clarify the role of politicians like Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel, Peter Altmaier, or Manuela Schwesig, van Aken said. “We must clarify how Germany got into this dramatic energy dependence on Russia. So we don’t stumble headfirst into the next dependence, the Trump gas trap, after the Gazprom fiasco.”
The Left Party is currently just short of the 5% threshold in polls, but is also making hopes of securing at least three direct mandates and entering the Bundestag.
Van Aken also reiterated his party’s stance of not delivering weapons to Ukraine and dissolving NATO. However, he sees clear differences with the BSW’s stance: “I’ve sat in the Bundestag for a long time, and I’d say they’re more a Kremlin party than a peace party” he said to the FAZ. “My starting point is the people in Ukraine, and how I can achieve peace for them.” He added, “We have always clearly condemned Moscow’s aggressive war of aggression. The BSW doesn’t say that so clearly, they rather talk about the war guilt of NATO.”
Van Aken also suggested securing a ceasefire in Ukraine with a UN blue helmet mission, even with German soldiers. “If it’s a classical UN blue helmet mission, neutral and unarmed and with a UN mandate, one can think about it” he said to the FAZ.