The leaders of Germany’s struggling Left Party on Sunday said they will not run for office again at the party conference in October.
Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan, who have co-led the party since 2022, confirmed they would not stand again in statements published on the party’s website.
The step comes after a series of election defeats and growing criticism of the two leaders.
The far-left party – known in Germany as Die Linke – has been in crisis since the departure of a prominent former member and the subsequent haemorrhaging of support.
“I realize that there is a desire in parts of the party for a fresh start in terms of personnel,” Wissler said in her statement. “I think now is the right time to create clarity, two months before the party conference, so that the party has enough time for a transparent process and to form an opinion on candidates within the party.”
The decision came one day after the leadership acknowledged the party “is undoubtedly in a dangerous, existentially threatening situation,” in its main motion for the October congress.
At the last election to the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, in 2021, the party garnered only 4.9% of the vote, below the 5% threshold needed to enter the chamber.
It only managed to form an official faction thanks to a special rule favouring minor parties winning at least three direct mandates.
Germany’s Left Party has been in decline for years, but has suffered a further loss of support since the popular former member Sahra Wagenknecht left the party over her anti-immigrant views and founded her Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) in 2023.
In early June, the Left Party garnered a mere 2.7% in the European Parliament election.
In his statement, Schirdewan issued an appeal for party members to unite.
“Give those who will soon take the helm the chance and the confidence to lead the party. This requires an end to the sometimes destructive power politics within our own ranks,” he said.
The leaders’ move comes ahead of important elections in the eastern German states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September, where the Left Party is dropping in polls.
Another poor result would be disastrous for the party, which traces its origins to the communist party that ran East Germany until reunification in 1990, and has since continued to draw most of its support from eastern regions.
