For the social democrats the elections were good too, they won 1,5% extra and this gives them 45 seats more in the Bundestag. For genuine leftists this elections was not good, since The Left lost 12 seats. This is a result of the battle inside The Left about its participation in capitalist governments. The party leadership wants to govern under capitalism, but the party members are anti-capitalist and oppose this. Now the party lost votes because of its inability to present a socialist alternative!
Workers who voted on the CDU/CSU made a bad choice. Because Merkel will do what the capitalists want her to do. Also she is a major player in the European Union. Angela Merkel wants to enforce strict austerity programs to save European capitalism. Workers in Greece, already suffer under Merkel's austerity plans. The puppet government of Greece does not stand up to the iron female chancellor. Most conservative Germans however like her, because she is strong and this well liked in the upper class of Germany!
For revolutionary socialists the German elections are another proof, that a genuine socialist party is needed. The Left must become a party for workers and young people. Unfortunate the party leadership is not socialist, they are limited to a more leftist social democratic model. Therefore we can call The Left a bourgeois workers party. A party that has support among workers, but its leadership has a pro-capitalist attitude!
There is however a good thing that came out of these elections. Although the CDU and CSU are conservative and capitalist, the main German party that always supported free market capitalism has been voted out of the parliament. The liberals of the Free Democratic Party did not win more then 5% in order to enter parliament. For the first time in German history, the Bundestag is left win-out a liberal capitalist party. The Free Democratic Party only won 2,4%, almost as much votes as the Pirate Party. German liberals must have been in shock as their party was always in the parliament and sometimes in government. Now the FDP is nothing, abandoned by its voters. The liberals have been dealt a huge blow in the face. That is positive for us!
But the victory of the German conservatives is not positive. That the Social-democratic Party of Germany won a few extra votes does not mean anything. Like other social democratic parties, the SPD is pro-capitalist and anti-worker. Since they supported the German Empire in 1914, the SPD has chosen the side of the ruling class. After the second world war, the social democrats also abandoned marxism and socialism. Today the SPD is a typical capitalist party, not center-left but more center-right. On the political spectrum the SPD is not left-wing, this is reflected by their long years of loyalty towards the dictatorship of the markets!
The Left can only recover from this lose if the party becomes genuine socialist. A new leadership is needed, a socialist leadership that fights for workers rights and a socialist society. If the party remains limited to social democratic ideals then it will never win the support of workers, social democracy is not the way forward. Also The Left must not work with the SPD or the Alliance '90/The Greens in government. But this is what The Left already did in some German states. In Berlin, the Party of Democratic Socialism ( predecessor of The Left ) ruled with the SPD for many years. They supported budget cuts and pro-capitalist politics, all in the name of compromises. As a result of that, the left-wing voter abandoned The Left in Berlin!
The Alliance '90/The Greens were also ( like The Left ) founded as a left-wing alternative to the SPD. But when the Greens entered the government alongside the SPD, the Green voter soon found out what ruling under capitalism meant. The Alliance '90/The Greens did what capitalism demanded. As a result support for the Greens dropped. This could also happen to The Left, if it chooses to enter a capitalist government with the SPD and Alliance '90/The Greens!
Leftist voters do not want a capitalist government made up of SPD, The Left or the Greens. We revolutionary socialists call for a socialist government that destroys the capitalist state and its right-wing institutions. Because many members of The Left oppose capitalism and the bourgeois state, some are watched by the Federal Office of Constitutional Protection. This government agency is watching all groups that are a ''danger'' to German democracy. They claim they only look at extremist groups, but what they call extremist means all people and groups who oppose parliamentary democracy. We revolutionary socialists are called ''dangerous'' because we oppose the weak democracy of Germany. The Federal Office of Constitutional Protection is just another tool of the government, to spy on revolutionary socialists!
The Left is made up of former stalinists, leftist
social democrats, moderate socialists
and revolutionary socialists!
