Last year’s elections saw a resurgence for Germany’s socialist party Die Linke. In an interview, coleader Ines Schwerdtner explains how the party is seeking to expand beyond current left-wing voters to reach broader parts of the working class.
What the left needs to learn, in my mind, is being angrier. The AFD has successfully whipped their supporters into a frenzy with the constant fear-mongering. And there are enough topics to be legitimately angry about. You need to mobilize your own and disillusioned voters by being passionate.
The working class is always a low-hanging fruit for the far-right rhetoric. That is why you need an “aggressive” democracy to keep the fash in their place. If you don’t, the rate of expansion for fascist ideas is faster than for socialist ideas, because the first is regressive and the latter progressive. Any democracy that is not actively fighting fascism is doomed to destroy itself. This is how we got here. AGAIN.
Yea, imagine the outcome.
I mean: our chancellor already called people basically “leftist, deranged lunatic” wirhout any consequences (“Linke Spinner, die nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben”).
Thereby he set the tone for the campaign and further communication.
I don’t see the problem. You are not trying to convince CDU voters to vote for Die Linke, you are trying to reach your own base and energise voters that may agree with you but see no point in voting. If anything, having Merz say that about you is positive. If Merz has no problem with you, you are on the wrong side of politics.
Nonvoters are at most 50%. With equal distribution, that only allows to double the votes. Die Linke has to gain much more to be able to govern. Almost anybody can be won over with the right argument because they are all proletarians.
What the left needs to learn, in my mind, is being angrier. The AFD has successfully whipped their supporters into a frenzy with the constant fear-mongering. And there are enough topics to be legitimately angry about. You need to mobilize your own and disillusioned voters by being passionate.
I would use the word “indignant” rather than “angry” to signal constructive anger, that is not about venting steam but about changing structures.
The working class is always a low-hanging fruit for the far-right rhetoric. That is why you need an “aggressive” democracy to keep the fash in their place. If you don’t, the rate of expansion for fascist ideas is faster than for socialist ideas, because the first is regressive and the latter progressive. Any democracy that is not actively fighting fascism is doomed to destroy itself. This is how we got here. AGAIN.
That is a problematic advice, as “the left” (whatever that means) already gets framed as unhinged, delusional and radical.
I mean “the left” as in left parties, specifically the faces of those parties. And the BILD will call everything left of CDU unhinged.
Yea, imagine the outcome. I mean: our chancellor already called people basically “leftist, deranged lunatic” wirhout any consequences (“Linke Spinner, die nicht alle Tassen im Schrank haben”).
Thereby he set the tone for the campaign and further communication.
I don’t see the problem. You are not trying to convince CDU voters to vote for Die Linke, you are trying to reach your own base and energise voters that may agree with you but see no point in voting. If anything, having Merz say that about you is positive. If Merz has no problem with you, you are on the wrong side of politics.
Nonvoters are at most 50%. With equal distribution, that only allows to double the votes. Die Linke has to gain much more to be able to govern. Almost anybody can be won over with the right argument because they are all proletarians.
This is called “watching as the Overton window moves” in real time.