THE LEFT Party has pledged to go to Germany’s highest court to end state surveillance of the organisation because of alleged extremists in its ranks.
For years the party and its politicians have been monitored by Germany’s constitutional protection office (BfV), which monitors groups it considers a danger to the constitutional order, including neo-Nazi parties and Islamist groups. The Left Party says this surveillance is unfair and a politically motivated attempt by rivals to damage the party’s reputation.
It has asked the constitutional court to give a verdict after Leipzig’s federal administrative court dismissed a complaint by Bodo Ramelow, the party’s regional leader in the state of Thuringia.
“Of course the Left Party conforms to the constitution,” said Mr Ramelow, “even if that doesn’t rule out that silly things are said now and then. We are dealing with state tools being used against a successful political party.”
The Left Party arose from the merger of the successor party to East German communists and ex-Social Democrats (SPD) disillusioned with Schröder-era reforms.
The party has 76 seats in the 622-seat Bundestag, sits in two regional governments and is represented in all but two of Germany’s 16 state parliaments.
The constitutional protection office (BfV) justifies its observation because of party elements, such as the Communist Platform and the Marxist Forum.
“On the one hand the party aims to be viewed as a reform-oriented new leftist party,” noted a recent report. “At the same time there are still many indicators for left-wing extremism. Those are in particular the unclear stance towards left-wing extremist violence and the open acceptance of extremist alliances among its own members.” The BfV says there is nothing sinister in what it calls its “public observation” of the Left Party, gathering speeches, statements and other publicly available data on party officials.
Those under observation, including parliamentary party leader Gregor Gysi and leading MP Petra Pau, disagree.
“Keeping us under observation serves the purpose of stigmatising the party for voters, making us appear . . . not quite clean,” said Left Party spokesman Hendrik Thalheim. He says the party doesn’t rule out that the BfV, contrary to its public claims, is using secret means of surveillance as he says happened the past. In Mr Ramelow’s case, an informer was placed into his inner circle.
“No one in the party wants to start a revolution and topple everything,” said Mr Thalheim. “But we do question the economic order . . . capitalism is not the last word, but the constitution does not protect capitalism.” The case has polarised opinion. The centre-right Christian Democrats has welcomed the practice while left-wingers call it a mistake to equate the party with the neo-Nazi NPD. The German media is divided, too.
“Those who denounce the Left Party as anti-democratic,” noted the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, “should question their own understanding of democracy.”