The Party of Democratic Socialism was a left-wing populist political party in Germany active between 1989 and 2007. It was the legal successor to the communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which ruled the German Democratic Republic as the sole governing party until 1990. From 1990 through to 2005, the PDS had been seen as the left-wing "party of the East". While it achieved minimal support in western Germany, it regularly won 15% to 25% of the vote in the eastern new states of Germany, entering coalition governments with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the federal states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin.
Gregor Florian Gysi is a German attorney, former president of the Party of the European Left and a prominent politician of The Left political party.
Lothar Bisky was a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007 he became co-chairman of The Left party, formed by a merger of the PDS and the much smaller Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. From 2007 until 2010 he was the President of the Party of the European Left. Also, he was the Publisher of the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland.
André Brie is a German politician and from 1999 to 2009 Member of the European Parliament for the Party of Democratic Socialism, part of the European Left and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Alexander Gamal Radwan is a German politician.
The Left, commonly referred to as the Left Party, is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. Through the PDS, the party is the direct descendant of the Marxist–Leninist ruling party of former East Germany, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Since October 2024, The Left's co-chairpersons have been Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken. The party holds 28 seats out of 736 in the Bundestag, the federal legislature of Germany, having won 4.9% of votes cast in the 2021 German federal election. Its parliamentary group is the second-smallest of seven in the Bundestag, and is headed by parliamentary co-leaders Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann.
Massimo D'Alema is an Italian politician and journalist who was the 53rd prime minister of Italy from 1998 to 2000. He was Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2006 to 2008. D'Alema also served for a time as national secretary of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS). Earlier in his career, D'Alema was a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and was the first former Communist party member to become prime minister of a NATO country and the only former PCI prime minister of Italy. Due to his first name and for his dominant position in the left-wing coalitions during the Second Republic, he is referred to as Leader Maximo. He is also the author of several books.
Thomas Nord is a German politician and Member of the German Federal Parliament.
Cornelia Ernst is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany. She is a member of The Left Party, part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left.
Hubert Dietmar Woidke is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Since August 2013, Woidke has served as Minister President of Brandenburg.
Zdzisław Marek Krasnodębski is a Polish sociologist, social philosopher, publicist and professor at the University of Bremen (Germany), who has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 2014 election.
Rolf Schwanitz is a German politician. From 1998 till 2005, he served under Federal Chancellor Schröder as a Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery. He was then, from 2005 till 2009, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Health ministry under Federal Chancellor Merkel.
Edwin Zimmermann was a German engineer and politician who was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
Anita Tack is a German politician who is a member of The Left. From 2009 to 2014, she was the Minister of the Environment, Health, and Consumer Protection for the state of Brandenburg. Since 1994, she has been a member of the Landtag of Brandenburg.
Dagmar Enkelmann is a German politician of Die Linke party.
Ralf Christoffers is a German politician who served in the Landtag of Brandenburg from 1994 to 2019 and as Minister of Economic Affairs and European Affairs of Brandenburg in the Cabinet of Ministers-President Matthias Platzeck and Dietmar Woidke from 2009 to 2014.
Dietmar Keller was an East German politician (SED/PDS) who served as Minister for Culture in the Modrow government. After reunification he sat as a member of the German parliament ("Bundestag") between 1990 and 1994.
Michael Stübgen is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as State Minister of the Interior and for Local Affairs in the cabinet of Minister-President of Brandenburg Dietmar Woidke since 2019. He previously served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Brandenburg from 1990 till 2019.
Heinz Vietze is a former German politician and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and its successors, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and The Left.
The Left Brandenburg is the regional association of the party The Left in the state of Brandenburg. The regional chairmen are Katharina Slanina and Sebastian Walter, who is also the parliamentary group leader in the Landtag of Brandenburg.
