A prominent figure has left the German party Bündnis Solidarische Linke (BSL), Friedrich Pürner, a member of the European Parliament. Pürner, who had previously refused to implement the Corona policy as the head of the health department in Aichach-Friedberg in 2020, was elected as one of six European parliamentarians in June 2024. However, he had long been dissatisfied with the party.
In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung in early January, he stated, “I am disappointed in this project and have repeatedly pointed out the deviation internally.” “Fresh wind from previously non-partisan people” had been hindered, he claimed.
The BSL has a limited and hand-picked membership, with a few dozen members in all federal states. The party’s federal board must approve new members and there are less than 2,000 members nationwide. The reasons for this could be the poor experiences made by the party’s chairwoman, Sahra Wagenknecht, in the years before her departure from the Left with projects like “Aufstehen”.
Pürner, in his resignation letter, complains that “many former members of the Left saw the BSL as a springboard for themselves and pushed others aside with their elbows.” This is indeed true for the Bavarian state association of the Left, from which many of the current BSL members come, which was known for its internal conflicts.
“Panic and surveillance culture prevails inside the BSL” Pürner claims. He also criticizes the coalitions in Thuringia and Brandenburg, which he believes were bought at the expense of too many concessions.
“We wanted to create structures in which not the most ruthless and cunning individuals would prevail, but the most talented and best” he emphasizes. And laments the failure of this attempt: “We, however, are not a bit better.” This is also reflected in the fact that Pürner’s departure is not the only one in his state association in Bavaria. In Schweinfurt, a city councilor who had previously switched from the Left to the BSL has also resigned, along with five other Bavarian members, citing the BSL’s approval of the CDU’s “Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz” in the Bundestag.
Behind these quarrels, there is also a conflict between two completely different organizations: the six members in question all come from the trade union Verdi, while the state chairman, Klaus Ernst, comes from the IG Metall. And while the Verdi members see the BSL’s stance on the migration issue as a “populist narrowing that unnecessarily fosters social divisions and is in danger of leaning to the right” a BSL member, presented only as a “works council member at an automobile company” is quoted as saying, “Illegal migration is a problem that many people are concerned about” and the BSL is a party that “finally represents the interests of the workers again.”
Not only in Bavaria, but also in other states, such as Hamburg, conflicts within the party are simmering, with even a court dispute over the founding party convention of the state association being fought. Such headlines, which also involve candidates on the party’s election lists, are, of course, extremely unfortunate, especially in the run-up to the federal elections. Wagenknecht attributes this to the desire of the opponents to see the BSL fail, saying, “They want us to fail.