Friedrich Pürner, a prominent member of the BSW, has left the party after criticizing its internal dynamics and the way it has handled coalition agreements in Thuringia and Brandenburg. Pürner, a member of the European Parliament, had previously refused to implement the Corona policy as the head of the health department in Aichach-Friedberg in 2020. He was elected as one of six European parliamentarians in June 2024, but had been having problems with the party for a while.
In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung in early January, Pürner expressed his disappointment with the party, stating, “I am disappointed in this project and have internally pointed out the deviation multiple times.” He also claimed that a “fresh wind from previously non-partisan active people” was being hindered.
The BSW has a limited, handpicked membership, with only a few dozen members in all federal states. The party requires the approval of the federal executive committee for new members and the total membership is less than 2,000 across the country. The poor experiences of the party’s chair, Sahra Wagenknecht, with projects like “Aufstehen” before her departure from the Left, may have contributed to the party’s limited growth.
Pürner, in his resignation letter, complained that “many former members of the Left saw the BSW as a springboard and pushed others aside with their elbows.” The Bavarian state branch of the Left, from which many current BSW members come, was known for its internal conflicts.
Pürner also criticized the party’s culture of mistrust and surveillance, stating, “In the inner workings of the BSW, a culture of mistrust and surveillance prevails.” He also criticized the coalition agreements in Thuringia and Brandenburg, which he claimed were made at the expense of the party’s core values.
“We wanted to create structures in which the most talented and best people would prevail, not the most ruthless and cunning” Pürner emphasized. However, he lamented the failure of this attempt, saying, “We are, however, no better.”
Pürner’s resignation is not an isolated incident, as another city councilor in Schweinfurt, who had previously switched from the Left to the BSW, also left the party. The six members, all from the Verdi trade union, resigned over the party’s support for the CDU’s “Zustrombegrenzungsgesetz” in the Bundestag.
This conflict also involves a clash between two different organizations, as the BSW’s state chairman, Klaus Ernst, comes from the IG Metall trade union, while the Verdi members see the BSW’s stance on the migration issue as a “populist narrowing that unnecessarily fosters social divisions and risks being on the right fringe.” On the other hand, a BSW member, a works council representative at an automobile company, was quoted by the Spiegel as saying, “Illegal migration is a problem that many people are concerned about and the BSW is a party that finally stands up for the interests of the workers again.