Germany’s far-left Linke pitched themselves on Monday (6 September) as would-be coalition partners for the Social Democrats and Greens after the 26 September election, arguing they offer the two larger parties the best chance of delivering their social policies.
A surge by the centre-left Social Democrats
(SPD) into a clear lead in polls over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
conservatives has focused attention in Germany and beyond on possible
coalition options after the closely fought election.
At stake is the future course of Germany,
Europe’s largest economy and most populous country, after 16 years of
steady, centre-right leadership under Merkel. She plans to step down
after the election.
An INSA poll for mass-selling daily Bild
published on Monday showed the SPD extending its lead with 26% support,
ahead of the conservatives on 20.5% and the Greens on 15.5%. The
business-friendly Free Democrats were on 12.5% and the Linke on 6.5%.
“We are ready to take on government responsibility,” Dietmar Bartsch,
who leads the Linke in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), told
reporters.
Olaf Scholz, the SPD candidate for
chancellor, said on Sunday he wanted to rule with the left-leaning
Greens. Polls suggest, however, that he would need the support of a
third party to reach a stable majority in parliament.
German conservatives have put pressure on Social Democrat (SPD)
chancellor hopeful Olaf Scholz to make it clear before this month’s
election whether he would cooperate with the leftist Die Linke party in a
coalition government.
German conservatives’ top candidate, Armin Laschet, …
Such a three-way tie-up points to an
SPD/Greens alliance with either the Free Democrats (FDP), who would
rather team up with the conservatives, or with the Linke, heirs to the
Communist Party that ruled old East Germany for four decades.
Both the SPD and the Greens would be
uncomfortable with such a red-green-red coalition, which conservatives
say would mean a big lurch away from Germany’s centrist mainstream.
Scholz has repeatedly distanced himself from the Linke, calling the
party unfit for government so long as it does not clearly commit to the
NATO military alliance, the transatlantic partnership with the United
States, and solid public finances.
The Linke said they offer the SPD and
Greens the best chance of delivering on their campaign pledges, such as
raising the national minimum wage, increasing taxes on the super rich
and accelerating the shift towards renewable energy.
For the SPD and Greens to lean right and
instead team up with the FDP would be “electoral fraud”, Bartsch said,
as they could no longer deliver on their campaign pledges.
Conservative candidate Armin Laschet’s
promise of “steadfastness” is failing to resonate with voters worried
about climate change, immigration and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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