Germany: Merz embarrassed – Die Linke rushes to the rescue

What an embarrassment for Fritze Merz! For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic, an incoming German Chancellor has failed to be elected by the Bundestag, despite having signed a coalition agreement to gain a majority. This is embarrassing for Merz and an omen for his crisis-ridden government.

[Originally published in German at derkommunist.de]

The Chancellor, who is supposed to recover Europe’s status as a world power on behalf of capital, cannot even control his own coalition before he takes office. Capital is demanding that he be a strong chancellor, but that is impossible. German capitalism is in an unrelenting decline and the Chancellor of German capital is confronted on all sides with uncomfortable realities.

The insoluble contradictions of German capitalism will bring nothing but crises for his government and it will stumble from one mishap to the next. This government will certainly succeed in one thing, however: it will turn the working class and youth against it. It is high time for the labour movement and the youth to organise resistance.

The bosses’ organisations and the entire bourgeois press loudly expressed their indignance at the 18 dissenters among the Christian Democratic and Social Democratic MPs who initially refused to vote for their Chancellor, despite their parties having formally backed the proposed coalition agreement. This was ‘irresponsible for the country, German business and democracy’, they claimed. Apparently, if elected MPs vote freely according to their conscience, this is of course undemocratic.

Handelsblatt informs us that “numerous businessmen are harshly criticising the dissenters in their initial failure to elect Friedrich Merz as Chancellor. After months of political stalemate, they expect the new government to quickly introduce the necessary reforms.” By the necessary ‘reforms’, these billionaires mean the biggest attacks on workers’ standard of living since the Schröder government’s infamous attacks in the 2000s. Already, during the election campaign, Merz proudly and unambiguously announced his intention to carry out this programme.

But it is not just the bourgeois press that is outraged. Their co-thinkers can be found in unexpected places: even Neues Deutschland, a newspaper close to Die Linke, and the Die Linke MP Bodo Ramelow have joined the patriotic outrage. Ramelow said: “The CDU/CSU and the SPD have a majority [in parliament]. The fact that they didn't have one this morning is embarrassing for [SPD co-leader] Mr Klingbeil and Mr Merz and that's why I'm quite angry with them that it happened like this.” Thus, Die Linke was not deterred from helping Friedrich Merz out of this embarrassing predicament when it became necessary.

Big business thanks Heidi

Just a few days ago, Heidi Reichinnek, leader of Die Linke’s parliamentary group, was still infuriating the reactionary journalists from bourgeois newspaper Die Welt, because she had announced that she wanted to overthrow capitalism. Now Die Linke’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag has facilitated the election of big business' favourite candidate, Friedrich Merz, as German Chancellor after he failed in the first round of voting.

Die Linke’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag has facilitated the election of big business' favourite candidate, Friedrich Merz, as German Chancellor / Image: Die Linke, Flickr

Although Die Linke’s MPs did not vote in favour of him becoming Chancellor, they voted as part of the necessary two-thirds majority in favour of the second attempt at the election taking place on the same day. This, they claimed, was “good for the country”. It is anyone’s guess why expediting the assumption to office of Austerity Chancellor Merz would be good for the working people of this country.

The bourgeois newspaper Tagesspiegel praised Die Linke for this patriotic act and ran the headline: “Chancellor-maker: Friedrich Merz is indebted to Die Linke”. The article continues:

“The leaders of the CDU/CSU, particularly [CSU parliamentary chairman] Alexander Dobrindt, negotiated with the leaders of Die Linke. Together with the parliamentary group, they adopted an amendment to the rules of procedure. [...] Die Linke has demonstrably acted out of a sense of responsibility for Germany, and this was clearly expressed in the plenary session. [...] A memorable day: Die Linke actively helped to avert a national crisis. All for a greater good. Friedrich Merz will know who he has to thank for his office as Chancellor.”

Lack of opposition from the left strengthens AfD

Shortly after Merz's failure in the first round of voting, Die Linke posted a picture of Heidi Reichinnek on Instagram with the slogan ‘Heidi for Chancellor!’. However, by not calling for new elections and instead helping to hoist Merz into the chancellorship, she showed the whole country that Die Linke does not take itself seriously and is not a militant opposition to the Merz government.

In practice, Die Linke ensured that the AfD once again appeared to be the only opposition party against the establishment. Even if the AfD was inconsistent and also voted in favour of the second round, it at least loudly called for new elections beforehand.

It was precisely such policies of the left reformists over the last ten years that have led to the rise of the AfD. Despite all the hysterical outrage about the AfD, Die Linke is not living up to its election promise of being ‘the real firewall’ against them. If the AfD becomes the strongest force in the next federal election, it will be largely due to this approach by Die Linke.

Some may argue that a new election would strengthen the AfD. But what will actually strengthen the AfD will be four years of the Merz government and, above all, the lack of any serious opposition to it from the left. The only effective remedy against the AfD is uncompromising class struggle against those in power.

Handshakes not barricades

Merz had hardly been elected Chancellor when the leaders of Die Linke eagerly lined up to shake the former Blackrock manager's hand in a servile gesture to congratulate him. Die Linke’s leadership forgot all the outrage it had previously expressed over Friedrich Merz's ‘fall from grace’ as he tore down the much-invoked ‘firewall’ and voted with the AfD in favour of stricter asylum laws shortly before the elections.

The leaders of Die Linke offered themselves to the CDU as reliable statesmen / Image: Die Linke, Flickr

It was this outrage over the cooperation between the CDU and AfD – and Heidi's declaration in the same debate that Die Linke would “take to the barricades” against racism, austerity, rearmament and war – that won Die Linke its historic electoral success of 9 percent of the vote and tens of thousands of new members.

This was not the first time in recent weeks that the leaders of Die Linke have reached out to the CDU. During the recent asylum debate in the Bundestag, leading figures within Die Linke complained that Merz and the CDU negotiated with the AfD instead of them.

In Gregor Gysi's speech as the longest-serving member of parliament, and in the debate on the suspension of the constitutional limits on state borrowing – the ‘debt brake’ – in order to fund rearmament, the leaders of Die Linke offered themselves to the CDU as reliable statesmen. Yet at the same time they loudly and publicly claim to be outraged by the CDU's dirty tricks. The debate on increasing the state debt in order to fund rearmament only took place thanks to the agreement of Die Linke, and in the Bundesrat, Die Linke’s politicians in Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania voted in favour of the historic rearmament proposals.

Symbols not struggle

During the election campaign, tens of thousands of new members joined Die Linke to ‘take to the barricades’ against Blackrock-Merz and the reactionary AfD, the impending chainsaw massacre of austerity, and the rearmament of the German military. The election campaign also showed what can be achieved when these young, motivated members are mobilised: they rang 650,000 doorbells across the country, held discussions with hundreds of thousands of workers and youth, and thus ensured the electoral success of Die Linke. Many people were in an optimistic mood.

After the election, the leadership felt that the party base had done its job. Instead of mobilising them to raise awareness in working-class districts about the undemocratic manoeuvres of the CDU and SPD in suspending the debt brake; to counter the ruling class' rearmament propaganda; and to build a mass movement on the streets against the incoming government, the party’s base was left idle. Instead, there were merely a few indignant slogans at press conferences and a complaint to the constitutional court. There was symbolism, but no struggle.

This shows that all the verbal commitments to ‘socialism’, a ‘class party’ and the ‘struggle on the streets’, which can be found in the leadership’s motion for the upcoming party conference, are nothing but empty words. In deeds, Die Linke consistently does precisely the opposite every time.

Why you should join the revolutionary communists

As Chancellor, Merz, with the help of the SPD, will push through the programme of big business: ‘Bombs not books!’

During the election campaign, he already announced a slashing of the welfare state. His choice of ministers gives us an idea of what will be in store for us under the Merz government: cabinet positions have been handed to capitalists, as well as arch-conservative publicists. We are already seeing the start of the cuts in Berlin. Up to 25,000 university places are to be cut across the city. It is high time to prepare a struggle to defend against these attacks.

Die Linke and its youth organisations would be able to do this as mass organisations. That is why the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) have called on them to mobilise their membership to fight for their own programme. That would be a big step forward. We are ready to enthusiastically support every step in this direction and join in the practical struggle.

It is high time to prepare a struggle to defend against these attacks / Image: Zinnmann, Wikimedia Commons

But Die Linke’s leaders are reformists – their goal is not the overthrow of capitalism and the seizure of power by the working class. They cannot imagine a world without capitalists. That is why they feel compelled to avoid anything that jeopardises the interests of the capitalists – and in doing so, they sacrifice the interests of the working class, which they are supposed to represent.

Their imagination does not reach beyond the framework of the bourgeois parliament, bourgeois government coalitions and German business. They do not want to frighten their bourgeois ‘partners’ by mobilising their membership to build a mass movement of workers and youth against the policies of big business.

It is precisely this policy – which Die Linke has pursued since its very beginnings – that has led the party into the deep crisis it has endured in recent years. Only Merz's AfD stunt and the enthusiastic commitment of its members in the last election campaign led it out of this crisis temporarily.

It cannot be ruled out that reformists like Heidi or Die Linke’s co-leader Ines Schwerdtner will adopt more militant rhetoric if the anger of the masses leaves them no other choice. We will support every step that Die Linke takes to advance the movement, but ultimately, as long as they cling to the coattails of the ruling class and fail to adopt a programme that breaks with capitalism, they will lead any mass movement against the Merz government to defeat. Betrayal of the working class is inherent in reformism.

As revolutionary communists, our goal is the overthrow of the Merz government, the expropriation of big business, the abolition of capitalism and the seizure of power by the working class in the socialist revolution. That is why, in struggles for reforms, we do not represent any interests other than those of the working class. Such struggles can only be waged consistently if we do so without seeking to participate in bourgeois governments and without eagerly serving capital as reliable partners.

The only guarantee that such struggles will not end in defeat is a Revolutionary Communist Party that is big enough to lead this movement. So if you want to consistently fight against every cutback, against militarism and against every attack on the living standards of workers and youth, you should join the RKP.