Germany's ailing Die Linke seeks new leaders and new directions

Germany's hard-left Die Linke (The Left) party is to see a leadership change in the autumn, according to reports from a party crisis session following a collapse in support in the European Parliament elections, dpa learned on Sunday.

Co-leaders Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler have made clear that they do not intend to continue in office. They have led the party together since 2022.

A working group has been appointed to chart the way forward to party positions on content, strategy and leadership ahead of the annual congress in Halle to the south-west of Berlin in October.

The party traces its origins through several changes to the communist party that ran East Germany until reunification in 1990 and drew most of its support from that region.

It gained just 2.7% of the vote in early June European elections, around half of the figure five years previously.

"The result of the European elections was a heavy blow to Die Linke," a resolution passed after the session noted. "In sum, we have to recognize that our electoral strategy did not work," it added.

The party fared poorly in German federal parliamentary elections in 2021 and in subsequent elections at state level.

The resolution noted that the party had made social justice, climate change, peace and opposition to rearmament its central themes, while foreign policy and migration had dominated the elections.