Oskar Lafontaine is a German politician. He served as Minister-President of the state of Saarland from 1985 to 1998, and was federal leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1995 to 1999. He was the lead candidate for the SPD in the 1990 German federal election, but lost by a wide margin. He served as Minister of Finance under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder after the SPD's victory in the 1998 federal election, but resigned from both the ministry and Bundestag less than six months later, positioning himself as a popular opponent of Schröder's policies in the tabloid press.
Sahra Wagenknecht is a German politician, economist, author, and publicist. Since 2009 she has been a member of the Bundestag, where until 2023 she represented The Left. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team of allies, she left the party on 23 October 2023 to found her own party in 2024, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, to contest elections onwards.
Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative was a left-wing German political party founded in 2005 by activists disenchanted with the ruling Red-Green coalition government. On 16 June 2007, WASG merged with Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) to form The Left. At the time of its merger with The Left Party. PDS, WASG party membership stood at about 11,600 members.
Dietmar Gerhard Bartsch is a German politician who has served as co-chair of The Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag since 2015. Prior, he served as federal treasurer of The Left from 2006 to 2009 and federal managing officer from 2005 to 2010. He was a prominent member of The Left's predecessor party, the PDS, of which he served as treasurer from 1991 to 1997 and federal managing officer from 1997 to 2002.
Sevim Dağdelen is a German politician and a member of the Bundestag. She was elected for Left Party and switched in October 2023 to Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.
Ottmar Schreiner was a German lawyer and left-wing politician. He was known as one of the leading leftists in his party, SPD.
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 2022, The Left's co-chairpersons have been Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan. 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.
The Communist Platform is an association within the German Left Party. Among the main goals of the KPF are the preservation and advancement of Marxist thought, improving the situation of the poor, and fighting racism and anticommunism. They believe that change in society should be aimed at building a socialist society. Its most prominent member was Sahra Wagenknecht, who was a member of the European Parliament and is now a member of the Bundestag. As of May 2008 the Platform had around 961 members.
The Socialist Left is a political caucus in the Left Party of Germany. It includes political viewpoints ranging from left Keynesianism and left social democracy to reform communism and Marxism. SL members share a common goal of orienting the Left Party firmly toward the labor movement.
Ursula Engelen-Kefer is a German politician who held the position of Deputy Chairman of the German Confederation of Trade Unions from 1990 to 2006. She is currently a lecturer at the German Federal Employment Agency’s special training school Hochschule der Bundesagentur für Arbeit in Schwerin. She also teaches at the Free University of Berlin and chairs the Social Policy Working Group of the non-government organization Sozialverband Deutschland. From 1986 to 2009, Ursula Engelen-Kefer belonged to the 45-member „Executive Committee“ of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). She was chosen by the district of Ingolstadt, Eichstätt and Neuburg-Schrobenhausen to be its direct SPD candidate for the Bundestag in the last federal election. In July 2009 she was elected as a member of the "Executive Committee" of the Social Democratic Party in Bavaria.
Thomas Händel is a German politician and Member of the European Parliament from Germany. He is a member of The Left, part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left. He was appointed Chair of the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee in July 2014.
Herbert Behrens is a German trade unionist and politician of the party The Left. From 2009 to 2017, he was a member of the German Bundestag.
Gökay Akbulut is a Turkish-German politician and social scientist. She is currently serving in the Bundestag as a member of The Left Party from the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg.
Nicole Stephanie Gohlke is a German politician.
Amira Mohamed Ali is a German politician and member of the Bundestag since 2017. From 12 November 2019 till October 2023, she was the parliamentary co-chairperson of The Left alongside Dietmar Bartsch. In October 2023, she left The Left alongside others like Sahra Wagenknecht to found a new party. Amira is the chairwoman of the board of the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht-Association which was founded to prepare a new party in January 2024.
Caren Nicole Lay is a German politician. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009 and has been deputy chairperson of the Die Linke parliamentary group in the Bundestag since 2017. From 2012 to 2018, she was one of the deputy chairpersons of her party. In November 2019, Lay unsuccessfully applied to succeed Sahra Wagenknecht as co-chairperson of the Die Linke parliamentary group in the Bundestag. She was defeated by Amira Mohamed Ali in a competitive vote.
Dagmar Schmidt is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag, the German parliament, since 2013.
Jessica Tatti is a German politician. Born in Marbach am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, she represents Wagenknecht-party and serves as its Group Chief Whip in the German Bundestag. She switched party from The Left in October 2023 to "Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht".
Christian Leye is a German politician. He is a Member of the German Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia.
The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice is a left-wing nationalist, populist, Eurosceptic and socially conservative German political party founded on 8 January 2024. The party was preceded by the establishment of a registered association, created on 26 September 2023 and primarily made up of former members of the German political party The Left, for the purposes of preparing the founding of the new political party. Plans for the new party were presented at a federal press conference on 23 October 2023 by Bundestag members Sahra Wagenknecht, Amira Mohamed Ali, and Christian Leye, former managing director of The Left in North Rhine-Westphalia Lukas Schön, and entrepreneur Ralph Suikat.
