Overview
- Die Linke, which elected its new leadership on Saturday, June 20, confirmed Ines Schwerdtner with about 86% support and narrowly chose Luigi Pantisano with roughly 53% of the delegates’ votes.
- Delegates adopted a party line that calls Israel’s military campaign in Gaza a “Völkermord” (genocide), while the text also affirms Israel’s existence and contains measures aimed at combating antisemitism.
- The new leadership has moved the party toward an activist program that calls for coordinated workplace organizing and a “protest cascade” against social cuts and increased defense spending.
- Internal strains persist over antisemitic posts in the Linksjugend youth wing, sharp disagreements about tolerating CDU-led coalitions in eastern Landtage, and political fallout from Pantisano’s public comparison of the CDU with the AfD and ‘fascists.’
- In Bavaria, the AfD’s state federation is in turmoil as Reinhard Mixl challenges Stephan Protschka amid allegations of threats, claims of outside influence, and a federal ban on consultant Tom Rohrböck, leaving the party unsettled before regional votes.