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Vanessa Emde | Exclusion of Vanessa Emde: The Left can learn from the Greens
In the Berlin left-wing faction, critics of the state would be a healthy corrective. A comment.
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Vanessa Emde in the House of Representatives. The ten-member parliamentary group executive committee of the Left does not see a common working basis as a given. Photo: dpa/Britta Pedersen Vanessa Emde won the direct mandate in her constituency in Neukölln and thus the ticket to the Berlin House of Representatives. She now enjoys a star cult in the Palestinian solidarity scene. The fact that the Left was elected because of its demand for an affordable Berlin and not because of Palestine is ignored in these circles.
But her critics also contribute to Emde's popularity. For example, the SPD top candidate Steffen Krach, who was defeated in the Berlin election, and Lars Klingbeil, head of the federal SPD, want to make Emde's exclusion from the Left faction a condition for a coalition. The Left would have to confidently reject such an invasive request. After all, it is actually clear among potential coalition partners that they will not interfere in the interests of the other parties.
The Berlin Left could learn from the Greens of the 1980s. When the Realos around Joseph Fischer and the SPD around Holger Börner forged a first coalition at the state level in Hesse, left-wing state critics such as Jutta Ditfurth and Thomas Ebermann had great influence in the party and the Green Party's parliamentary group. The Left Greens did not skimp on criticism of the Realos. At the party base they were valued as a corrective against excessive conformity tendencies.
In Berlin, too, state critics could form a left-wing counterweight to the government bloc. However, Emde and Co. should direct their criticism of the state primarily against Germany and not give the impression that the Middle East conflict would be decided in Berlin.
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