Linken-Spitze criticizes Wagenknecht's statements about the possible founding of a party

Left-wing member of the Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht announced on Saturday that she would decide in the next few months whether she would like to found her own party. The left-tip criticized the statements sharply.

In the face of war, the climate crisis, inflation and strikes, the party is more in demand than ever. "Announcing that you want to decide on the formation of a competing party in the course of the next few months is irresponsible," said Linke chairmen Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan after a tweet from the party press office. “It offends the thousands of members who work locally for Die Linke and its goals. We call on everyone to reject efforts to divide, to defend and develop Die Linke as a plural socialist party.”

Sebastian Walter, member of the Brandenburg state parliament, took Wagenknecht's statements as an opportunity to ask her to give up her mandate in the Bundestag. "Decency and respect for the members and the voters require that you give up your mandate and take your time for whatever," Walter wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Wagenknecht had said to the news portal "ZDF Today": "By the end of the year it must be clear how things will continue". The decision whether to found a party or not will be made "within the next nine months". Her weighing process also includes the question of her health: "As a one-woman show, I can't do that."

Wagenknecht's rejection of another candidacy for the left had fueled new speculation about a split in the party. She recently caused irritation in her party with her positions on the Ukraine war.

Wagenknecht continued: “Founding a party depends on conditions, including legal ones. You have to build structures. The expectation that one could - even if one had decided - just launch a party like this, from one week to the next, that would be doomed to failure."