From: 04/20/2022 19:15
Along with Janine Wissler, she led the left for a good year. Now Susanne Hennig-Wellsow is stepping down with immediate effect. One of the reasons she gave was the recently discovered sexism at the party.
Left-wing federal president Susanne Hennig-Wellsow announced her resignation. She posted a corresponding statement on her homepage.
“I am resigning from my position as leader of the left-wing party with immediate effect,” the 44-year-old wrote. Hennig-Wellsow has led the Left Party along with Janine Wissler since late February 2021. The new dual leadership followed Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger.
Kristin Schwietzer, ARD Berlin, with an assessment of the resignation of the co-leaders of the Left Hennig-Wellsow
Tagesschau 17:00, 20 April 2022
“New Faces”
One of the reasons she gave for her dismissal was her private life situation. Her eight-year-old son needs her and has a right to spend time with her. “But in this situation, the left also needs a leader who is there for the party with everything he has,” says Hennig-Wellsow.
Dealing with machismo in the party and an urgent renewal of the left were also reasons for his resignation. “New faces” are needed for this.
“We were unable to fulfill the promise to be part of an advanced political change due to our own weakness,” Hennig-Wellsow wrote of the state of his party. “Very few people believed that we were willing and able to actively change this country for the better.”
“The Party’s Flagrant Deficits”
She has not achieved her goal of initiating a renewal of the left. “I know about the avoidable mistakes I’ve made myself,” says Hennig-Wellsow. She failed to convince those who associate renewal with the fear of losing the familiar.
Of the party’s treatment of sexism, she wrote: “I apologize to those affected and support all the efforts that are now needed to transform the left into a party in which sexism has no place.”
The party’s blatant deficits were publicized. “Spiegel” published suspected cases of sexualized violence in the Left Party of Hesse on Friday.
Susanne Hennig-Wellsow (right, Die Linke) threw the flowers at Thomas Kemmerich (left, FDP), the prime minister of Thuringia, who was elected with AfD votes, and walks away. | Image copyright: dpa Image: dpa
Bartsch: difficult situation for the left
The leader of the left-wing parliamentary group Dietmar Bartsch said the resignation deserves respect, but it also came as a surprise to him. This put the left in an extremely difficult position. You have to get back on your feet quickly to fulfill the voters’ mandate. According to Bartsch, the left was always stronger when the crisis was greatest.
The party executive will meet tonight to draw conclusions from the situation. The challenges are gigantic, the problems big. A programmatic discussion is now needed, said Bartsch. The left must reconsider its role in the party system, and it needs a strategic, programmatic, as well as personal reconsideration.
In the daily threads, Bartsch rejected the resignation calls of fellow co-chair Janine Wissler. To say that the new party leadership is responsible for the negative electoral results in the Saar and in the federal elections is “in my opinion wrong”. However, Bartsch urged his party to stop waging “internal wars”. “This dispute must finally be a thing of the past. But appeals will not help. Each must take a look at their own noses and do something to ensure that we fulfill our historic responsibility.”
“It came as a surprise to me,” Dietmar Bartsch, leader of the parliamentary group Die Linke, on the resignation of co-chairman Hennig-Wellsow
tagesschau24 18:00, 20 April 2022
No congratulations to Kemmerich
Prior to his election to the Bundestag, Hennig-Wellsow was a member of the Thuringian state parliament for 17 years. Since 2014, she has been the leader of the parliamentary group there.
She became known across the country in February 2020 when she did not congratulate FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich, who had been elected prime minister with AfD votes, but threw the bouquet at his feet.
Co-President of the Left Hennig-Wellsow resigns
Uwe Jahn, ARD Berlin, 20 April 2022 15:22